The Fallen Continent: California
Still the most populous state in the country, California is also one of the most hotly disputed.
Population: 2,250,000
Largest City: Chico
When the snow crowned Golden Sierras
Keep their watch o'er the valleys bloom,
It is there I would be in our land by the sea,
Every breeze bearing rich perfume.
It is here nature gives of her rarest.
It is Home Sweet Home to me,
And I know when I die I shall breathe my last sigh
For my sunny California.
Introduction
California, though still the most populous state in the wasteland, is a chaotic and deeply scarred land. Most of its land area is uninhabitable or is sparsely inhabited; the bulk of its remaining population now inhabits the northern regions, the San Joaquin Valley, and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Multitudes of gangs, cults, and militias control swathes of the Californian wasteland. Most have only a few dozen fighters each and are irrelevant to the big picture. Some, however, are large enough to be minor players across the state. As California has seen scores of warlords come and go, the few who remain on the map are generally competent rulers. Though often eccentric and almost always immoral, they are the cream of the Californian Anarchy, a battleground in which millions perished during the Starving Time. Though they are interesting to examine, the gangs and petty warlords will not decide the fate of California—that ability rests in the hands of its larger powers to the north and along the Sierra Nevada. The very largest warlords include some of the country’s strongest neo-feudal states. To describe just what a neo-feudal state is, however, requires a lengthy digression.
Neo-Feudalism
“Neo-Feudalism” is a very curious sounding term. Feudalism hearkens back to the dark middle ages of a thousand years past, and ascribing the prefix of “neo-” to it sounds very odd. Neo-Feudalism does not indicate a new system in which there are literal lords with knights, bishops, and reeves holding land under them, all of whom rule over the lowly serfs in one big Renaissance Fair reenactment (although some warlords have certainly tried). Instead, it refers simply to the system of vassalage and governments based on personal, semi-formal bonds when a warlord subjugates other smaller authorities.
The system of neo-feudalism works thus: a warlord—typically one with a powerful enough army to conquer several towns, often ranging in the hundreds or thousands of men—approaches a town. He parlays with the local authorities, be they an elected mayor, sheriff, National Guard officer, some other emergency authority, militia captain, fellow warlord, or simply a charismatic local patriarch, like an influential pastor. He then extends an offer, really more of a demand: “pay me and my men in some kind of tribute, such as food, fuel, or ammunition, and we will not attack you. The amount you pay will be less than what we will take from you should we defeat you. It might even be less than what you would lose even if you drove us away.”
The town that refuses such an offer is attacked and harshly punished as an example to other towns not to defy the warlord. The town that accepts can be counted upon for further tribute in the future. The warlord now has an incentive to protect that town to prevent its resources from being exhausted from other warlords. This system grows and expands into a rudimentary state, with a basic administration to account for this network of tributaries. The system emerges organically, just like the original feudal system did with rampaging Goths and Franks among the ruins of the Western Roman Empire.
Also like the feudal lords of old, there is little in the way of complex administration. Only a little bit of the state is actually controlled by the paramount ruler, while the rest of his territory is controlled by subordinate rulers—prewar authorities, other warlords who swore fealty, or fiefdoms parceled out by the paramount leader to his loyal lieutenants. These local rulers can run their territories however they like, or maybe with a few vague guiding legal principles, and are afforded plenty of autonomy as long as they pay their taxes and provide troops when called upon. Between the taxes and levy troops, these warlords can easily field large armies that a solitary warlord could only dream of commanding.
These systems are prolific and easy to set up, being incredibly intuitive and simple. During the first decade or two after the Great War, they dominated the continent and drove prewar governments to the brink of extinction. As time goes on, however, they have begun to show their age and are not able to maintain the kind of sustained capability for warfare as a modern state. These systems are only held together by brute force and the will of the paramount warlord. If that warlord perishes, or is ousted by one of his subordinates, it can lead to a free-for-all power grab among the lesser warlords, which itself leads to a total collapse of the whole system.
Life for the average citizen in a neo-feudal regime is hard. The vast majority of the US population, like it did in the 19th century, now works in the agricultural sector. Conditions are brutal, as the neo-feudal masters have little incentive to not squeeze their serfs for all they are worth.
The main difference between medieval feudalism and neo-feudalism is its longevity. Medieval feudalism persisted for a thousand years, while most neo-feudal regimes can’t break twenty years. The very best are not likely to surpass fifty. In the middle ages, power consistently passed from father to son, with few exceptions. Some neo-feudal states have unofficial hereditary succession, but most of them have no codified basis for succession when the warlord dies. The neo-feudal regimes that endure are the ones that can centralize (or, in some cases, federalize) and transition into a modern government with state institutions. These states become renewed (albeit corrupt) democracies, autocratic dictatorships, and centralized monarchies, or even rival claimants to the old United States government. With that said, it’s time to explore the many factions of California.
State of Jefferson
Capital: Redding
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
Dominating northern California is the sprawling State of Jefferson. It is one of the oldest, most well-established and powerful post-war states, though it is beginning to see its age after years without much in the way of reform or innovation.
The Jefferson Movement dates as far back as the 1850s, but began to earnestly gain traction during the Great 21st Century Crisis, a fifteen-year period of extreme economic turmoil, social upheaval, and political polarization that preceded the Great War. The Movement, mostly including conservatives and libertarians, argued for the secession of several counties from northern California and southern Oregon in order to form their own state, the State of Jefferson.
After the Great War, the California rump government in Bakersfield designated most of northern California’s remaining cities as safe zones for refugees from the Central Valley and San Francisco Bay. Upset at the prospect of having to share their limited food and living space with tens of millions of refugees, local authorities across northern California jumped on the Jeffersonian bandwagon and seceded. The counties, mostly those nearest the Klamath River, banded together as the State of Jefferson, with its capital in Yreka.
When the refugees made it past the ruins of Sacramento, most settled down in Chico and Redding. Local authorities maintained control in Chico long enough for a second rump government to form there following Bakersfield’s destruction in a secondary strike. The powers of Redding, by contrast, could not withstand the storm and fell into warlordism. The man on top was Jason Ashton, who established a neo-feudal dictatorship as the “Special Administrator” of Redding.
When Ashton got around to Yreka, he approached them with an offer of subjugation, wishing to enhance his legitimacy. As the Special Administrator of Redding, he facilitated Redding’s secession from the State of California and into the State of Jefferson. He then strong-armed his way into becoming the Acting Governor of Jefferson by making himself state President of the Senate and forcing the Provisional Governor to resign. In effect, the State of Jefferson was reduced to a powerless puppet government controlling only Yreka. Redding then became the functional capital of the state as the domain of its most powerful warlord. The rest of Jefferson’s territory are little fiefdoms of petty warlords, bound to Ashton—not the state—by personal allegiance rather than by legal obligations.
Most of Ashton’s reign has been spent in open warfare with Oregon and the PGC, though his conquests notably slowed down over the years as he began to shift his focus towards centralization and legitimization. Jefferson is experiencing the slow transition from a simple vehicle for Ashton’s power to the actual state secession movement it was intended to be, even if it is still a top-heavy neo-feudal dictatorship. As Ashton’s health grows feebler and he considers retirement, his chosen heir has begun to step up to the plate. In contrast to his benefactor, he shows more interest in ruling Jefferson as a centralized dictator and settling the question of whether Jefferson is the 51st State or a sovereign republic.
As one of the wealthier American factions, Jefferson enjoys a relatively high standard of living, comparable to other powers of its size. It lacks the modern amenities or fledgling technological sector of Oregon, but still has widespread public utilities and limited foreign trade with other factions and along the Pacific coast. It uses a specie form of currency, minting its own tiny silver coins, the Jefferson Silver Dollar.
The Free Cities
Capital: Lake City
Classification: Local Government (City-state league)
When Alturas was subjugated by the State of Jefferson, the small communities on the eastern edge of Modoc County broke free of the county seat. The Free Cities, as they came to be known, were settled by outcasts fleeing the warlordism of Jefferson and the brushfire wars of Nevada. They have since developed into a peaceful farming and ranching community, but the State of Jefferson ever looms over them.
As Jefferson’s main priority is now on the Oregon frontier, the Free Cities have gotten the best offer they can hope to get from Redding. Rather than join as a neo-feudal subject, they have scored an alliance between two sovereign powers. The Free Cities’ role is to supply Jefferson with a tribute of food, and they are not required to join them in any wars or supply any troops. They know that Ashton is using them as a buffer against raiders from the open wasteland, but their “special relationship” with Redding is preferable to any alternatives.
Provisional Government of California
Capital: Chico
Classification: State Legacy (State emergency government)
California was one of the most heavily targeted states of the Great War, yet its state government initially remained well-off. The State Controller rallied state, local, and federal remnants to Bakersfield, where he established a California rump government in cooperation with the federal government in Twin Falls. One month after Twin Falls was destroyed, Bakersfield suffered a secondary strike of its own, and the California government was destroyed with it. Interestingly, the Bakersfield Government harbored the briefly-reigning British monarch Henry IX, who fled to the city after surviving the atomic bombing of Santa Barbara. King Henry was presumed dead after his disappearance following Bakersfield’s destruction and was succeeded by James the Duke of Essex, a 21-year-old naval lieutenant stationed off the Falkland Islands.
Further north, Chico had been built up during the Bakersfield days as a parallel center of authority. It included already-present authorities and officials who had crawled out from the wreckage of Sacramento and marched north along with millions of other refugees. Among these survivors was a surviving state assemblyman and his hangers-on, who proclaimed a Provisional Government of California after the destruction of Bakersfield. As the Acting Governor, he quickly purged all his opposition within the government and settled into his position as a ruthless dictator.
Still resisting calls for elections, he is the sworn enemy of both Jefferson and the smaller statelets to the south. His burdensome requests for men and supplies to reconquer lost territory only added more fuel to the fire, encouraging local authorities up north to secede and join the Jeffersonians. The Provisional Government has since stabilized the front and achieved internal security, but only after the loss of most of northern California and all of their diplomatic gravitas with the other state governments.
Chico was one of the last states to still recognize John Ingersoll’s presidency in Midland, Texas—another diplomatic hiccup that prevented any cooperation with the State of Oregon that would have otherwise crushed the Jeffersonians. After the death of Ingersoll and the fall of Midland, Chico switched allegiance to the Kahului Government in the hopes that they could land an army in North America and save them from Jefferson. Kahului lacked the strength to do so, but their nuclear bluff forced Jefferson to back down, buying much-needed time for Chico to build up its strength. The Acting Governor has since passed away and been succeeded by his young son, who is considering pulling a Michigan-style maneuver to proclaim his own US government now that Kahului is out of the picture.
Provisional California’s economy is similar to Jefferson’s and is, in fact, slightly stronger. Instead of silver specie, however, Provisional California employs a form of representative currency backed by agricultural produce (which includes certain kinds of drugs; cannabis cultivation is a state-controlled enterprise). The so-called “Chico Dollars,” also called “Granger Dollars,” are redeemable in the form of next year’s harvest. Currency can only be redeemed once a year at harvest time and a new set of bills is printed annually. The PGC economy also circulates a number of Jefferson Silver Dollars, New Guinean Kina, and Hawaiian Dollars.
North Bay Revolutionary Committee
Capital: Santa Rose
Classification: Left-wing Ideological Faction (Revolutionary front)
The North Bay Revolutionary Committee is another one of the rare left-wing factions in the wasteland. The city was seized by refugees from San Francisco, who threw out most of the original inhabitants and sent them north towards Chico territory. Marxist-Leninist ideologues seized power among the refugees and established the first communist state in American history.
Out of all the leftist regimes in America, they are the most staunchly socialist, in the traditional American understanding of the term. Considering themselves to be the only true Marxist-Leninists on the American continent, they wish to uphold the legacy of the October Revolution and the late Soviet Union. The right–wing fanaticism of the revived Russian Empire, however, has soured public opinion on most things Russian, so the NBRC has lately tried to shift focus to Chinese socialism, Cuban socialism—anything from outside of Russia—as a theoretical model.
The NBRC is one of the most dedicated socialist states in America, compared to the militaristic People’s Revolutionary Council and ASFR, the genocidal Acadian People’s Republic, or the social progressive states like the SPRA in Indiana or the Progressive People’s Front in New York. They have a staunch desire to implement Soviet-style socialism in the former United States, and have even implemented a “Five Year Plan” to foster local industry and build a military that can compete with Chico’s.
In reality, the pressures of post-nuclear government hamper most ideological experiments, and there is little opportunity for the NBRC to function much differently from any other military or militia regime. Conditions are at least better than petty warlord states, but the bright-eyed socialists have been forced to operate as a “dictatorship of the proletariat” until socialism can be achieved across the entire country.
The NBRC’s staunchest enemies are, of course, the Provisional Government of California, with whom they share their only frontier. This border has been extensively fortified by the communists, who wait for the right moment to spring into action and bring the revolution to Chico.
Stonewall Nation
Capital: Grass Valley
Classification: Left-wing Ideological Faction (Left-wing warlord)
Stonewall Nation is a colony of militant homosexuals and some homosexual allies who toppled the Nevada County government and seized the land for themselves. Their aim is to hold their ground until a government more amenable to gay rights is established in northern California. So far, few are interested in appeasing them.
88 Nation
Capital: Truckee
Classification: Warlord (Skinhead gang)
The 88 Nation is a white supremacist skinhead gang that sits on the crossroads leading south from the Provisional Government’s territory. Their founder was an efficient sociopath who was able to coordinate masses of inmates escaping from Folsom Prison further south.
Though they can ward off the neo-feudal levies from Chico, they are a far cry from the professionalism of the NVA in the Pacific Northwest. The NVA had numerous cells throughout California before the Great War, but the real fight was in the “Northwest Front,” and the Californian cells always had trouble recruiting. Most Californian volunteers were either urban and perished, or were assimilated into the fold of Jefferson.
A handful of 88 Nation gang members claim to have fought for the NVA, but none can ever verify their statements. 88 Nation instead represents the skinhead prison gang culture, one of many extreme subcultures that experienced a short-lived boom during the 21st Century Crisis.
El Dorado County
Capital: Placerville
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Sheriff’s regime)
El Dorado County is one of countless single-county regimes that dot the American wasteland. Located perilously close to the Sacramento Exclusion Zone, it wasn’t at risk of nuclear destruction, but was confronted with a danger of its own: refugees.
Tens of thousands of refugees came marching east along Highway 50, hoping to make the county seat of Placerville their new home. Between the petty warlord gangs that emerged among the refugee columns and the city’s plain lack of food and shelter for the whole throng, Placerville had a simple choice: bar entry for the refugees or let them overrun the town, which would result in warlord rule at best and utter desolation at worst.
Stoking the flames of localist sentiment, the Sheriff of El Dorado County took matters into his own hands. He raised a county militia by deputizing two thousand locals, mostly hailing from the city’s rural surroundings, into the Sheriff’s department. Those who wouldn’t fight were conscripted to prepare the city’s defenses, laying out sandbag parapets and stringing along barbed wire. For three continuous weeks during the coldest days of the Starving Time, the city was placed under a state of siege as small armed bands and a much larger unarmed horde tried to force their way into the city.
Placerville was one of the lucky towns; its leadership, though overbearing and despotic, was competent and resourceful. When the dust settled, the Sheriff and his private army stood alone as the undisputed rulers of the county. In the ensuing aftermath, Placerville earned its historic name as “Hangtown” by mopping up hundreds of stragglers.
El Dorado County’s story is just one of hundreds of similar tales, of the early clashes and climactic triumphs that occurred all throughout the American wasteland. Some of these early heroes and villains have lived to pass on a legacy for their progeny; countless others did not. Today, the Sheriff’s Department still rules Placerville with an iron fist; the Hangtown sobriquet has stuck and for good reason. Like most lone county regimes, living conditions are middling and public utilities like electricity, central heating, and running water are luxuries. Yet life is safer and more comfortable here than in the petty warlord realms like the 88 Nation or Andy Souvanny’s fiefdom in Sonora. The incumbent Sheriff—the successor of his Starving Time-era predecessor—does not recognize any Californian government and is highly skeptical of Chico.
Amador County
Capital: Jackson
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Local militia regime)
Allegiance: Continuity State of California
Amador County previously recognized the Chico government, but switched sides to the Continuity State in Visalia. They are ruled by a citizens’ militia that was formed after the Great War and ended up becoming more powerful than the county government.
Andy Souvanny
Capital: Sonora
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Tuolumne County got off to a bad start in the first days after the Great War, when an ambitious county official initiated a pointless power struggle that squandered most of its resources. The conflict left the county seat of Sonora helpless to invasion by Andy Souvanny, a Laotian warlord from Stockton who led an army of Asian-American refugees east toward the mountains.
Souvanny now rules over Tuolumne as the petty warlord of a personalistic dictatorship. Although he rose to power by stoking racialist sentiments among Stockton’s Asian-American community, he is by no means an ideological warlord—race was simply his vehicle to power. The extent of his policy was racial preference for Asians on the rationing board, but not much else.
With the nearby Marine Corps and People’s Revolutionary Council gearing up for war, Souvanny worries he might be caught in the crossfire. Neither side wants him for an ally, but both sides view him as a tempting target. His best bet may be to try and build an unlikely coalition of northern Californian warlords.
United States Marine Corps
Capital: Bridgeport
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
The unincorporated community of Bridgeport, California would have never made it on the map of post-nuclear America, had it not been for the United States Marine Corps’ Mountain Warfare Training Center. The base evaded destruction during the Great War and became the home of the largest remaining formation of United States Marines outside of Hawaii, Cuba, or Okinawa. The Marines quickly established a perimeter around the base and its surrounding communities in the days following the Great War, and later expanded its jurisdiction across Mono County.
The small, but professional and well-coordinated force maintained order during the Starving Time, inviting refugees from Carson City to settle within the county. Their numbers were further bolstered by remnants of the 184th Infantry Regiment and their hangers-on, fleeing the communist takeover of Merced. The Marine administration also inducted civilian officials into the fold, mostly mayors and county officials, who contribute to the Marine government’s decision-making process as a purely advisory body.
The Bridgeport Marines supported the Kahului government in Hawaii, who even designated the MWTC as the new central headquarters of the entire Marine Corps. The goal was for the Marines to cooperate with the Provisional Government of California and create a continuous corridor from Inyo County to Fort Bragg on the Pacific Coast. The Kahului government could bring its forces to bear on the continent from there and roll up the entire coast unchallenged, so the plan went. This strategy never got past the drafting table, however, due to Bridgeport’s suspicion of the Chico regime, Chico’s insistent recognition of the Ingersoll Presidency, Kahului’s spotty, outdated understanding of continental affairs, and the logistical difficulty of staging an invasion of California from Hawaii.
The Hawaiian Spring has since brought an end to the Pacific Fleet’s continental ambitions, leaving the USMC out to dry. Now they are the preeminent military faction west of the Rocky Mountains, and most remnant military formations now follow Bridgeport’s lead. The Marine Corps has taken an increasingly assertive stance and is on the verge of proclaiming its own national government for the rest of the military to rally behind. Accompanying this new outlook is a policy of expansionism, gradually assuming control over western Nevada and pushing back against the Merced communists.
People’s Revolutionary Council
Capital: Merced
Classification: Left-wing Ideological Faction (Revolutionary front)
Merced and much of central California initially came under the control of the 184th Infantry Regiment, the largest remaining formation of the California National Guard. In times of peace, only the first battalion was activated, but on the eve of the Great War, all battalions had been activated and were being mobilized for deployment overseas. Most of the regiment perished at their base in Modesto, but the Major of the reactivated 3rd Battalion rounded up the survivors and led them to Merced.
The 184th answered to Bakersfield until its destruction, when it suddenly found itself on its own. Morale reached a nadir during the Starving Time, both among the locals, the hordes of refugees from the Bay, and the rank-and-file of the 184th itself (many of whom were reservists and conscripts who had been reluctantly called into service both before and after the Great War).
Leftist refugees, inspired by the success of the NBRC in Santa Rosa, formed their own revolutionary cells. When the 184th’s rank-and-file mutinied after their Colonel ran out of cash to pay them, the revolutionaries rose up, capturing key buildings in Merced and neighboring towns. Rather than put down the revolutionaries, the mutinying soldiers all joined their ranks or fled into the mountains, mostly towards the more functional Marine Corps regime in Bridgeport. The revolutionaries executed the Colonel and established the People’s Revolutionary Council as the supreme military and political organ of the country.
Compared to the ideological, party-ruled NBRC, the PRC is a simple Red Army dictatorship. It is, in effect, a military regime that happens to espouse communist doctrine. The PRC calls their system “war communism” based on the 1919 Bolshevik model, arguing that America is under a state of perpetual war and revolution until the entire country can be pacified and liberated.
Despite their shared socialist ideology, the PRC and NBRC have chilly relations. They are not outright hostile, but neither faction recognizes the other. The PRC views the NBRC as anti-American, opposed to their own vision of American-style socialism, while the NBRC views the PRC as militaristic authoritarians. Still, they each prefer the other to any other factions across the country. The PRC certainly prefers Santa Rosa to the Bridgeport Marines, with whom they are locked in an ongoing war.
Hollister Triumvirate
Capital: Hollister
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Eclectic local government)
San Benito County and its county seat of Hollister are ruled by the Hollister Triumvirate, consisting of the son-in-law of the pre-war mayor, the head of the local militia, and a locksmith-turned-warlord from San Jose who muscled his way in. The Triumvirate has maintained a long-standing rivalry with the King of King City. Even with the recent rise of the People’s Revolutionary Council, they’re still more worried about their old feud with the King.
The King
Capital: King City
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
The King rules the town of King City and the surrounding Salinas Valley. He keeps four main lieutenants in charge of his fighters: The Jack of Hearts, the Jack of Clubs, the Jack of Diamonds, and the Jack of Spades, and a Joker as his spymaster. It’s corny, but he is an effective warlord who has kept a good hold over his territory and has wisely used his resources. The Salinas Valley was once a battleground between localist towns and incoming refugees, but the King came out on top of it all.
As ruler over most of the Salinas Valley, the King controls one of the most productive agricultural breadbaskets left in California. Although his geography shields him from invasion, it also hems him in and makes further expansion difficult. His only routes out of the valley are through exclusion zones or narrow mountain passes guarded by his enemies. Still, the King and his subordinates are ever-vigilant, watching and waiting for an opportunity to present itself.
Pacific Republic
Capital: Cambria
Classification: Local Government (Expanded county government)
The middling-sized towns of San Luis Obispo County shouldn’t have been destroyed. They held nothing seemingly vital for the war effort. But by being unfortunately close to Vandenberg Air Force Base, even their small municipal airports made them tempting targets. The Eurasian powers simply couldn’t risk letting San Luis Obispo or Paso Robles harbor returning American aircraft.
Cambria, the largest remaining settlement in the region outside the exclusion zones, was the natural rallying point for survivors and refugees. Order was maintained throughout the nuclear winter, thanks to the aid of returning bomber crews who bailed out over the ocean and landed on the shores of Cambria. The village was incorporated as a city and re-established San Luis Obispo County with the blessing of the Bakersfield government.
Following Bakersfield’s destruction, the county seceded as the Pacific Republic, which persists to this day as one of California’s four democratic factions. Although they maintain their independence and sovereignty, the Pacific Republic is not dogmatic about it and is willing to negotiate with other powers for some kind of eventual union. They have friendly relations with the Continuity State and are willing to participate in the Pacific Project, though they’ve been so far excluded from any plans and negotiations.
Kingdom of God (11th Hour Salvation Church of God)
Capital: Shandon
Classification: Religious Faction (Messianic cult)
The 11th Hour Salvation Church of God is a heterodox Christian cult led by the Hong Kong emigre and self-proclaimed Second Coming of Jesus Christ, Joshua Ng. Preaching to a crowd of mostly-Asian refugees who followed him out of the greater Los Angeles area, Ng taught that the Great War was the long-awaited Rapture, and that he, the Messiah, was to lead his flock through the End Times and create the Kingdom of God on Earth. Joshua also claims to be the Maitreya Buddha and conflates the Maitreya with Jesus Christ. His theology blends Evangelical Christianity with elements of Buddhism, Chinese Folk Religion, and New Age mystic practices, all culminating in a single doomsday cult. As with Andy Souvanny’s warlord regime, Ng generally favors Asians but is not an exclusive racialist.
Today, that Kingdom of God consists of the town of Shandon and its immediate surroundings, which Ng wrested away from its previous occupants during the Starving Time. Ng is now growing old and must prepare his church for a future without him. What’s more, he must prepare for the coming trials the Kingdom must face as its neighbors grow stronger and more aggressive.
Super-Mutants
Capital: Pismo Beach
Classification: Warlord (Raider gang)
The Super-Mutants are a typically brutish warlord gang that fought their way north out of the Los Angeles anarchy. While most of the petty warlords that emerged from Southern California perished during the Starving Time or were crushed by larger, more organized factions, the Super-Mutants survived by conquering the out of the way town of Pismo Beach, on the coast between San Luis Obispo and Santa Maria.
There’s not much special about this band of petty raiders. There’s nothing they do that other warlords don’t do, but they’re bad enough that they’ve done a little bit of everything at some point or another. Between the occasional cannibalism, the child soldiers, and the constant, pestering raiding, they’ve made themselves the hated enemies of all of central California.
The Danelaw
Capital: Solvang
Classification: Warlord (Outlaw motorcycle gang)
Solvang is one of California’s most quaint and peculiar little towns. It was founded in the early 20th Century by Danish-Americans who preferred sunny southern California to the cold and dreary Midwest. Its charming Danish architecture, comfortable hotels, and fine wines made it a popular destination for European tourists, including regular visits by the Danish monarchy. No Danish royals were present in Solvang during the Great War, but numerous Danish tourists were. This notably included a large contingent of Danish outlaw bikers—Scandinavians uniquely share the United States’ love for rebellious motorcycle clubs.
Following the destruction of Vandenberg Air Force Base to the west and Santa Barbara to the southeast, Solvang was left as the only surviving town in the region. A militia organized by the locals and Danish tourists took up arms to defend the settlement (after looting the Solvang Vintage Motorcycle Museum to get some rides). Some refugees with useful skills were admitted and shacked up in the town’s many hotels, mostly lone wolf survivors from Vandenberg and professors from the University of California in Santa Barbara. In fending off the rest of the refugees, the Danelaw (Capital: Solvang) was born. It’s not really a Danish state as it is a warlord regime that ties itself together through a partly-real, partly-imagined Danish identity. After surviving the Starving Time off of fish, game, and bitter wine grapes, the Danes now make periodic forays to the north to plunder resources from rival warlords and the sparsely-inhabited Exclusion Zones.1
Continuity State of California
Capital: Visalia
Classification: Local Government (Re-founded state government)
The Tulare Basin initially formed the basis of the Californian rump government when surviving state officials reconvened in Bakersfield. After Bakersfield was destroyed, the local authorities were left on their own. State officials in the north set up a new Provisional Government in Chico; when it became clear that the Chico government was led by a dictatorial madman, Tulare County broke off and convened its own local congress. Together with other nearby counties, they established the Continuity State of California.
Because they hold regular democratic elections, they have won the recognition of Amador County within the state and several other state governments, most notably Oregon. Most versions of the Pacific Project involve the Continuity State as the rightful Californian government, though a small handful still hold out for Chico (mostly extreme warhawks in Oregon who want to crush Jefferson). The Continuity State is doggedly trying to discourage the US Marine Corps from declaring its own national government and is begging them to join the Pacific Project and crush the separatists in Independence.
San Joaquin Organization
Capital: Wasco
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Civilian dictatorship)
Faced with the wholesale destruction that nuclear war brings, rump governments are forced to bring on board whoever they can fill the empty seats of government and keep its machinery working. Dr. Israel Miller was one such figure: a dentist by trade, who had won a seat on the California Lottery Commission in the years before the Great War. In the days of the Bakersfield government, he was appointed by the Acting Governor as a state senator.
Living at the very fringes of Bakersfield, perilously close to the refugee camps, Miller was one of the only surviving members of the Bakersfield Government. Visalia and Chico beat him to the punch of proclaiming new rump governments, but Miller wasn’t going to resign himself to the life of a refugee. He assembled a warband by recruiting from among the refugees and the FEMA workers that were overseeing them and conquered the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. The instrument of his conquest was the San Joaquin Organization, effectively a tiny neo-feudal body that subjugated smaller towns and gangs throughout the region.
Miller didn’t live far past the Starving Time, having died to radiation poisoning before the ten year mark. His son, however, successfully carried on his legacy and consolidated the neo-feudal regime into a centralized dictatorship. Today, the SJO is bracing itself for the coming war with the Continuity State, and is trying to make common cause with the surrounding warlords so that he can form a united front against Visalia.
Bad Bart
Capital: Taft
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Bad Bart controls the town of Taft and its strategic oil wells. He likes to play up the idea that he’s a classic western villain, wearing long, black clothes and growing out a thin mustache, but he’s more intelligent and diplomatic than he lets on. It’s kind of like a country warlord’s version of Nixon’s Madman Theory.
Duke of Tehachapi
Capital: Tehachapi
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
The Duke of Tehachapi is an odd fellow. He’s a very eccentric warlord, as evidenced not only by his ducal title but by his obsession with Hermeticism and the occult. He founded his own Rosicrucian order and claims to be the reincarnation of the mythical Christian Rosenkreuz from hundreds of years ago. The Duke may be the only Hispanic warlord who has an interest in mysticism yet doesn’t follow the cult of Santa Muerte. He is a proud Californio who boasts of his Californian heritage dating back to the days of the Spanish colonial empire; to fit this image of himself, he dresses up like a Castilian hidalgo and carries a rapier.
California Republic
Capital: Independence
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
Much like the Northwest Front and the Jefferson Movement, the California secessionist movement predates the Great War. Unlike the other movements, California secessionism was mostly a left-wing response to the federal government’s perceived right-wing tendencies. Their concerns were often based on issues of environmentalism and Californian underrepresentation compared to small conservative Great Plains states. The right-wing agitators, by contrast, were partitionists, who wanted a split-up California that remained within the union, not a single independent state.
The Great War, however, greatly scrambled views and affiliations. Surviving liberals tended to side with government authorities, especially around Visalia, while right-wing militiamen and survivalists championed defiance against the government. After Visalia proclaimed their own state government in opposition to Chico, Inyo County made a declaration of its own. Having been subjugated by right-wing militiamen shortly after the bombs fell on Bakersfield, Inyo proclaimed the rebirth of the California Republic (Capital: Independence).
Compared to the NAR, they are rather tame, and are more of a dictatorship of militias that uses right-wing rhetoric to justify their actions than a fanatic ideological state. Even their rhetoric is more mild than the NAR’s racialism; it mostly consists of appeals to a traditional white Christian settler identity and a hatred of “subversive ideologies,” like socialism, progressivism, feminism, fascism, and Islam. There were not many socialists, feminists, or Muslims living within their territory even before they evicted whoever could be found, but this hasn’t stopped them from using this rhetoric to prop up their rule. They fight on-and-off with the Marine Corps, but have brokered a peace as the Marines shift their focus towards the communists in Merced. The militias, meanwhile, are preparing for their own offensive against the Continuity State, to settle the question of California’s governance once and for all.
A critical boon to the California Republic’s continued existence is their possession of the Mountain Pass Mine southwest of Las Vegas. This mine is the principal source of all rare earth elements in the United States, with ongoing prospecting in east Texas and the Rocky Mountains to uncover more. Without rare earth elements, a return to the digital technology of the antebellum world would be impossible; ninety percent of all rare earth minerals before the war were supplied by the Chinese, who cut the United States off from their supply even before the war began. Consumer electronics are very rare throughout the United States; most are imported from overseas or are recycled from old components, and are only reserved for the wealthiest Americans. The California Republic is one of the few factions that has the capability of producing more electronics from scratch, giving them an immense long-term advantage. This also makes them an extremely tempting target, however; a pan-military faction like the kind the Marines are putting together could potentially encircle and crush them.
Hells Angels
Capital: Needles
Classification: Warlord (Outlaw motorcycle gang)
Straddling the border with Arizona are the Hells Angels. They use the town of Needles as their home base, launching raids across the Mojave desert. They lack the strength, however, to cross the Colorado into Arizona, and have come to a tense, unspoken understanding with the Twelfth Air Force in Lake Havasu City.
Although they call themselves Hells Angels, they have very little connection to the prewar outlaw motorcycle gang, other than that their founding warlord and some of his first fighters were members of the club. There have been multitudes of warlords and gangs calling themselves the Hells Angels across the wasteland, each no more or less legitimate than the other. The Needles chapter is the largest one and also the only remaining chapter with more than a few dozen members, but many Americans remember the days when Hells Angels rode in strength across the nation, striking terror into the hearts of thousands.
Riverside Rangers
Capital: Blythe
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Eclectic local government)
Allegiance: California Republic
Unlike the rest of the Inland Empire, the Californian side of the Colorado River did not suffer huge refugee waves. It did, however, come under the rule of survivalist militias cooperating with renegade law enforcement. The new resulting order, the Riverside Rangers, rules over the eastern remains of Riverside County as well as a small foothold in Arizona. They also recognize the California Republic in Independence, but largely keep to themselves, eking out a living in the harsh desert environment.
Frente de la Raza
Capital: Julian
Classification: Left-wing Ideological Faction (Left-wing nationalist militia)
The Frente de la Raza is nominally a left-wing Chicano nationalist movement based out of Julian, California. In effect, it is a Chicano gang founded by a member of the United Farm Workers. The prewar UFW’s official stance against violence didn’t stop this warlord from taking up arms and recruiting followers during the California Anarchy in order to become the last faction standing in San Diego County. The use of left-wing Latin-American nationalist ideology as a springboard into warlordism bears some resemblance to the Aztlan Republic in southern Texas, which later grew into the United States of Aztlan.
The key difference between the two is the Frente de la Raza’s emphasis on the Chicano movement. Aztlan, by contrast, prefers a general Hispanic identity that transcends the antebellum US border. Additionally, the Frente remains hostile to non-members of “la Raza,” while Aztlan selectively cooperates with vestigial Anglo-American leadership. The last big ideological difference is religion. The Frente is officially secular, whereas Aztlan heavily promotes a postwar cult largely derived from antebellum Santa Muerte practices. The general rise in Hispanic nationalism and the small-scale revival of the otherwise defunct Chicano Movement, among other niche Latin-American political movements, can be attributed to the political polarization of the Great 21st Century Crisis that preceded the Great War.
Inland Empire
Capital: Indio
Classification: Local Government (Expanded city government)
Allegiance: Continuity State of California
With the destruction of Los Angeles and San Diego, the Coachella Valley became the most populous region of southern California. Knowing that the Valley would be swarmed by a tidal wave of refugees from the coastal cities, the Bakersfield government, in conjunction with Twin Falls, invested heavily in the region to prevent it from falling into anarchy. Surviving government authorities retreating from the Inland Empire, San Diego, and the Imperial Valley were ordered to create a perimeter around Coachella and the Salton Sea. They were later reorganized into one of the Twin Falls government’s Reconstruction and Recovery Centers and placed under the command of the Acting Governor in Bakersfield.
Thanks to the significant government investment and a substantial withering of the herd by the hardships of the California Anarchy and the Starving Time, government authority endured throughout the valley. Surviving refugees were resettled in the mountains to defend against raiders from the NEZs, while others were sent to reclaim what was left of the Imperial Valley to rebuild the region’s agricultural industry.
After Bakersfield was destroyed, local leaders reorganized their own government to coordinate efforts throughout the Valley. They had no intention of proclaiming their own state government, but needed an organization above the municipal level to manage the Valley. The resulting regional union was the Inland Empire, which mostly drew from the expanded and revamped City of Indio and its Reconstruction and Recovery Center. The Inland Empire’s first Regional Chairman was an incorruptible judge from Bakersfield who had been exiled to Indio as its new district attorney. He instilled a surprisingly vigorous democracy in a time when most governments were eschewing elections and habeas corpus in favor of emergency administrations and endless dictatorships.
Addendum: The name “Inland Empire” disappointingly does not refer to an actual empire, but is simply a historical term that refers to San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. The Coachella Valley is not always included in this term, but given the destruction of the two county seats, the term naturally shifted to apply to Indio and Palm Springs. If you want to see monarchies, don’t worry—they’re coming.
The Inland Empire recognizes the Visalia-based Continuity State of California, but harbors reservations about their supposedly watered-down democracy. Indio considers itself the last, best hope for democracy in California. With a large population, recovering agricultural sector, and growing industrial sector, it might be able to back up that claim.
New Orange Free State
Capital: Big Bear Lake
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Refugee gang)
Allegiance: California Republic
The Great War created a single, contiguous expanse of irradiated land from Santa Barbara to Tijuana, leaving southern California utterly devastated and mostly uninhabitable. Nearly ten million Americans and Mexicans died in the nuclear blasts and subsequent firestorms that swept the region. Millions more were exiled from their homes and left to fend for themselves. Legal authority crumbled, leading the waves of refugees to rally under the ephemeral banners of miniscule warlord bands. Most never exceeded a dozen or so members, who fought as lowly bandits preying on the weak, helpless, and isolated for food and shelter. As these bands of raiders and vigilantes grew, many were vanquished or coalesced into larger armies. These armies faced off in the California Anarchy, a brutal, years-long free for all in which the escaping refugees struggled with one another for survival.
One such band was the Orange County Alliance, a conglomeration of right wing-leaning refugees from Orange County who joined forces to fight off other raiders and carve out a new home for themselves. They found that home nestled among the San Bernardino Mountains, beside the Big Bear Lake reservoir. They were not the first to settle there, and they would not be the last to try. The Orange County settlers fought long and hard for their new territory, wiping out hundreds of petty gangs and subsisting off of tree bark. By the end of the Starving Time, they retained their control of the mountain lake and its two lakeside towns. Their triumph was formalized with the declaration of the New Orange Free State.
The Free State today resembles many other right wing militia regimes and vigilante factions, but is notably subdued in its political ideology. The tenacity of their conquest and defense of the basin and the urgency of their continued survival has forced them to dispense with much of their political ideology. Nonetheless, they recognize the California Republic in Independence, who in turn recognizes them as “a State within the Republic.” The Free State now exists in the shadow of the San Bernardino Reclamation Authority and the Inland Empire, the two largest factions of Southern California. Despite the rising threat, the Free State is still tied down with fending off petty gangs from the San Bernardino Exclusion Zone.
San Bernardino Reclamation Authority
Capital: Victorville
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Refugee gang)
Allegiance: Provisional Government of California
The San Bernardino Reclamation Authority is another one of the victors of the California Anarchy. Their ruling warlord is Braden Matheson, a tax accountant from Pasadena who fought his way through the San Gabriel Mountains with a small band of loyal followers. He ended up on top of the hundreds of petty bands that assailed him and formed a formidable army from their remains. With an army numbering in the thousands, he marched on the Victor Valley and installed himself as its despot.
Matheson’s success was in part due to his strong stance against the old LA street gangs, which flared up in numbers and ferocity during the California Anarchy. He offered protection from the gangs and specifically targeted his forces against them. Now that he’s in charge of a territory numbering 100,000 people, he’s not much better than any other entrenched warlords on the moral level. That shouldn’t be surprising, as anyone who’s killed his way to the top like Matheson has little concern for human life and not much in the way of a moral conscience.
At the same time, Matheson is no idiot. He is a competent sociopath and runs his state effectively. For a warlord of his size and means, he is exceptionally good at providing public utilities to his subjects. Water may be scarce, but the streets are safe and electrified. The government is modeled in a centralized, legitimist fashion, as opposed to neo-feudalism, and enjoys mutual recognition with the Provisional Government in Chico. With a large population and middling neighbors, the SBRA will likely make the first moves in the coming battle for Southern California.
Malibu Refuge
Capital: Malibu
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue law enforcement regime)
While most of Greater Los Angeles was rendered uninhabitable, a tiny strip of land remained free from the scars of nuclear war: Malibu. The beach resort town was previously home to some of California’s most affluent residents, including many Hollywood celebrities. Now it had become the last, best hope for a hundred thousand bleeding, starving refugees, many of whom were already homeless before the Great War.
Some celebrities saw the writing on the wall and evacuated by car, boat, or on foot elsewhere. Most of this group tried to reach Catalina Island or the California rump government in Bakersfield. The celebrities who fled to Bakersfield presumably died during the secondary strike, but some who fled to Catalina survived. Charlie Sheen notably took up residence in the Mt. Ada Hotel in Avalon alongside the hundreds of refugees who were sheltered there.
Most of the celebrities who stayed in Malibu fought to keep the refugees out. Working alongside Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies, they reinstituted the Malibu Locals Only gang, a 20th century street gang that antagonized tourists and other outsiders. Many of the MLO’s members were recruited from the students of nearby Pepperdine University. The Hollywood glitterati hoped to present a united front against the incoming rabble, but were disrupted by fellow celebrities who refused to go along with the scheme.
Rapper Kanye West invited refugees to seek refuge in the town, offering to personally provide food and shelter for them. Hollywood director Mel Gibson recruited sympathetic refugees and LASD deputies—all white men—to take up arms and defend his fortified compound. The teeming masses quickly overran the MLO and stormed the celebrities’ defenses. Some celebrities were torn apart, while others disappeared among the confusion. Whether out of malicious demagoguery or out of genuine but misguided benevolence, Kanye West’s ploy to command the refugees resulted in his downfall as he quickly lost control. The mob soon placed Mel Gibson’s compound under siege; the director held out for four months before his defenses failed. An urban legend tells that he shouted “FREEDOM!” as he died.
After defeating the LASD and the MLO, the refugees proclaimed their own government: the Malibu Refuge, theoretically a direct democracy in which all the citizens had a part in government. Malibu spent the first months of winter in relative peace, with only low level skirmishing between different factions and gangs among the refugees. When the winter did not let up and food stocks were depleted, the discontented populace took up arms once again. The Refuge’s communal assembly disintegrated when the Starving Time set in; it was never reconvened. The city tore itself apart with mob violence, which only died down when the population was sufficiently reduced to the point that open warfare was no longer possible.
This miserable equilibrium was only broken when a band of LASD deputies landed in Malibu, following their exile from Santa Catalina Island. They subjugated the hungry, shivering inhabitants of Malibu, who were now squatting in the vacated mansions of the formerly rich and powerful. The deputies reinstated the Malibu Refuge, this time with a charter of government that enshrined the deputies as the leaders of a new police state under indefinite emergency.
Catalina Republic
Capital: Avalon
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue law enforcement regime)
Though previously sparsely populated, the California Channel Islands were swamped by hordes of refugees escaping from Los Angeles by boat. Despite calls for Bakersfield and the Navy to help, Santa Catalina Island and its only incorporated city of Avalon were left to fend for themselves as tens of thousands of hungry, desperate mainlanders landed on its shores. The Mayor of Avalon was almost immediately overshadowed by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department deputies of Avalon Station, who elevated one of their own to the rank of Sheriff and tried to keep the mainlanders out. The Los Angeles County rump government’s subsequent downfall came not from street gangs or crazed refugee warlords, but from fellow law enforcement. A clique of surviving LAPD officers, Sheriff’s deputies, and other hangers-on mounted a successful invasion of Avalon in the months following the Great War and subjugated the Avalon government.
The LAPD banished the surviving Avalon deputies to the irradiated mainland and forced the mayor to hold “special elections” to form a new government. The City of Avalon was happy to oblige them, as they actually enjoyed more influence in the LAPD’s new government than under the Avalon Station regime. Following the destruction of Bakersfield, the island started referring to itself as the Catalina Republic. Despite the name, Catalina never formally seceded from the US and its inhabitants still think of themselves as Americans.
The Starving Time was not kind to the island. Though they didn’t open the floodgates to the entire horde, the LAPD still let in more people than the island could support even in prewar years, let alone during the nuclear winter. Tens of thousands perished and the island suffered devastating ecological damage. The Catalina Island Conservancy, an environmental organization that owned 88% of the island before the Great War, wasn’t outright abolished, but it was forcibly transformed into an agricultural and food production body by the police state. The waters surrounding the harbor were depleted by overfishing, the Catalina Island fox was hunted to extinction, and the famous Catalina Island bison herd barely survived the Starving Time with only a few dozen members.
Despite the hardships the island has endured, Santa Catalina survives and remains home to several thousand people. The government, though despotic, is competent and mostly benevolent, and the republic continues to regularly hold elections of dubious quality. The 11th Submarine Squadron has expressed a desire for unification with Catalina in the hopes of using them as a springboard for mainland reclamation. Catalina is quick to remind the Navy, however, that there isn’t much left on the mainland for anyone to reclaim.
Sea Organization
Capital: Commodore Base
Classification: Religious Faction (Cult)
The northern Channel Islands, previously uninhabited, were colonized by mainland refugees, who founded new towns on its shores. These settlements came under the rule of the Sea Organization, the paramilitary arm of the Church of Scientology, who was able to command influence over the desperate refugees. With no government to hold them in check, the Scientologists’ rule is as tyrannical as one would expect, and just as insane. Its members are all forced to sign the one billion-year contract of service, which their children are expected to fulfill in turn after they pass away. Through this system, the Sea Org has institutionalized their own form of serfdom.
Submarine Squadron 11
Capital: San Clemente
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
The southern islands of San Nicolas and San Clemente came under the rule of the US Navy’s Submarine Squadron 11 as they returned from the War. There, the Navy accepted the refugees and kept them under military rule. Like the Marines, they also served the Hawaiian regime before the independence referendum. Now, they assure the Marine Corps that they would cooperate with them, were they to proclaim a national government.
Index
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Side Note: The actual country of Denmark was struck by nineteen nuclear warheads, including the capital of Copenhagen and several key military installations. Including Greenland, the number of warheads suffered rises to twenty-three. Bornholm was not struck by nuclear weapons, but was heavily conventionally bombarded prior to a Russian invasion. The Danish monarchy endured in the person of Prince Joachim, the King’s brother and military attaché to the United States military, who was visiting Greenland in a joint-training exercise at the time of the Great War. Together with the Danish Joint Arctic Command, he returned to Denmark and joined a military government established by the Danish Artillery Regiment and the Danish Engineer Regiment in western Jutland.
The Kingdom of Denmark directly controls most of Jutland from their capital of Esbjerg on the North Sea coast and has hegemonic authority over the autonomous island of Fyn. Within Jutland, only the chaotic borderlands near Germany remain outside of firm royal control. Sjaelland is home to various warlords descended from the old biker gangs, while Lolland is subject to the rule of a legitimist warlord. Bornholm remains under the rule of Russian military remnants. The American military bases in northern Greenland were destroyed during the Great War, but southern Greenland remained intact and gained independence following King Joachim’s departure from Nuuk. The Faroe Islands survived the war unmolested and also gained full independence from Denmark.
Fyi brother, I have lived in Placerville and have friends there. It is being slowly encroached on by the capital city, and it's slowly going lib.
But that area is full of semi racist, almost ethno nationalist, methed out hicks. It has that reputation. In fact, many residents want the town to be called Hangtown like it used to be due the hangings they used to do.l there. I think el dorado county could have more than just a despotic sheriff
One advantage of California, Oregon, and Washington comes in the fresh Pacific air along the coast. Any fallout or dust would clear out more quickly there, leading to better agriculture than many other places