The Fallen Continent: Florida
The badly-battered Sunshine State is now the home of American piracy.
Population: 320,000
Largest City: Winter Haven
Way down upon the Suwanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.
All the world am sad and dreary,
Everywhere I roam!
Oh! darkies, how my hard grows weary,
Far from the old folks at home!
Introduction
Enter: Florida, the first of the east coast states. Florida’s woes came not from the Starving Time, as the nuclear winter was quite mild along the Gulf of Mexico, but from the heavy nuclear bombardment it suffered during the Great War. Florida hosted 26 military bases under 3 unified combat commands, staffed by 110,000 men in peacetime and several times that amount as mobilization efforts for the Third World War ramped up. The Sunshine State was hit with 55 missiles during the initial 48-hour exchange and 3 more secondary strikes over the Great War’s remaining twenty months.
The first of these struck McDill Air Force Base in Tampa, which successfully intercepted the first batch of missiles headed their way. This was a follow-up strike rather than a secondary strike, and occurred within a week of the initial nuclear exchange. The next two attacks were proper secondary strikes, the first on Daytona Beach and the second on Gainesville. Daytona Beach served as a major rallying point for surviving military personnel, included the remnants of the United States Fleet Forces Command. It was destroyed a few days after the federal government in Twin Falls fell. Gainesville, meanwhile, was the seat of Florida’s first rump government, led by the prewar state Commissioner of Agriculture. Gainesville was destroyed within three days of the strike on Daytona Beach and few survivors were left. The remnants of the Fleet Forces Command departed for North Carolina, while attempts to reestablish a state government were fractious and plagued by doubts over their legitimacy. With no clear civilian or military authority to guide the state through the Starving Time, the Florida Anarchy began.
Of Florida’s more than thirty million inhabitants, around one third were immediately killed and half were displaced, resulting in a chaotic mass of over ten million ungovernable refugees trapped on the Florida peninsula with little ability to escape. Florida’s large population of snowbird retirees did not last long and were the first to go. As it happened elsewhere so many times, the starving, desperate people gave rise to gangs and warlords who fought the government authorities and each other for food, shelter, and the necessities of survival. Many of these people were caught by human trafficking rings and sold into slavery, either within Florida, elsewhere in the United States, or abroad. Some took to the sea in boats to escape, either to the Caribbean islands or South America. Others set sail to attack the boat people, reintroducing piracy to the Gulf of Mexico.
Caribbean Piracy
Before describing the details of Florida’s factions and settlements, it is necessary to describe modern Caribbean piracy. The Great War destroyed all of the major American ports on the Gulf of Mexico and most major ports outside of the United States as well. The disruption to the global economy brought international shipping in the area all but to an end. Piracy, when it emerged, first did so to take advantage of the Boat People.
Early American pirates preyed on these boats, stealing possessions, valuables, food, fuel, and even occasionally people—mostly young women. Often there was little difference between pirates and their victims, both of whom were usually desperate and penniless people, displaced by the war and operating with a very low ability to recover from failures. As the number of boat people declined piracy also declined, until the slow recovery of international trade began offering additional targets and more established piracy made raids against Louisiana and South Texas more practical.
The early independent pirate crews sailing out in small motorboats and yachts have been replaced by semi-autonomous operators, at least nominally recognizing the leadership of a land-based warlord. Some, especially those who specialize in raiding, rely on larger boats to carry more fighters and more loot, while smaller vessels remain a viable option for certain types of commerce raiding. This latter group is more interested in stealing the personal possessions of sailors and the contents of ship’s payrolls than actually stealing cargo. Most pirate expeditions are funded by warlords or other wealthy individuals who buy shares of whatever loot is brought back, thus dividing both the expense and the risk of piratic operations. Unsurprisingly, American piracy is closely linked to human trafficking.
While the tales of seaborne raids sound very exciting, they are all very "high value, low volume" operations. The American pirate's bread and butter depends on smuggling, overseas trade networks, and deep-sea fishing. The pirates trade in some Caribbean staples, much like the pirates of old centuries ago; rum, tobacco, coffee, sugar, and fruit. They also, however, deal in modern goods that are just as, if not more profitable: marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and their own "liquid gold,” Colombian shale oil. Also sometimes literal gold, as was the case for the fortunate American pirates who discovered a sunken Spanish treasure galleon from the 16th Century off the coast of Barbados. These goods are bought up by pirates or seized outright and transported back to American ports like Key Largo, Bonita Springs, Port Charlotte, Orange Beach, and Port Lavaca, where they are sold to continental businesses who trade in them further north.
Gulf Coast Republic
Capital: Seaside
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Flawed democracy)
The Gulf Coast Republic could easily be called the sister republic of Orange Beach’s Pirates of Penzance. They, too, were established by a tourist warlord who rallied the other stranded tourists (many of whom were once quite affluent people) to take over their small habitable section of the Florida Panhandle’s coast. They were able to subsist off of deep-sea fishing, aided by the trade secrets of surviving fishermen who joined the tourists after their homes in Destin and Panama City were destroyed.
The Republic was never founded with the intention of engaging in piracy or harboring pirates, although some pirates do make port calls on occasion. They have always considered themselves a “legitimate” Gulf Coast faction, which is why the American exiles in Cuba have spared them. Their government could best be described as a “flawed democracy,” with elections characterized by machine politics, voter intimidation, and mob rule. They aren’t dogmatic secessionists, but are quite pragmatically-minded, and would be open to joining the USAIE’s pan-Floridian project if it continues to show results. They’re especially interested in the West Florida Liberated Zone’s plans for a separate State of West Florida, which looks increasingly likely as the state government in Winter Haven reveals its ambitions.
West Florida Liberated Zone
Capital: Port St. Joe
Classification: Local Government (Democratic mandate)
Allegiance: State of Florida, United States of America in Exile (New Miami, Cuba)
The Neo-Feudal Yoke
While most of the Floridian coast was overdeveloped and crowded with military, commercial, and tourist infrastructure to the point of ruination, the sleepy towns of Florida’s Forgotten Coast survived precisely because they were so thoroughly forgotten. They weren’t targeted during the Great War, and they were also far enough away from the I-10 to not have to worry about the refugee madness unfolding there. Even from the start, state authorities were not much interested in the Forgotten Coast, and most contingency plans involved abandoning the Panhandle entirely in favor of some kind of tropical redoubt in the warm Florida Peninsula. Local governments banded together as the Forgotten Coast Co-Operative, a body meant to coordinate defense, resource management, and refugee resettlement. There was a tinge of localism to the FCC, but not to the extent seen in full-blown localist warlord regimes.
Unfortunately for the FCC, they were not strong enough to withstand the tide of warlordism. A powerful neo-nomadic gang emerged further north called the Tenners, named after the long stretch of I-10 in which they first emerged. After establishing regional dominance, the Tenners extended their reach south towards the Forgotten Coast. They defeated the FCC, but not thoroughly enough to completely crush them. Instead, they established an indirect suzerainty over the region and made the transition into neo-feudal rule.
After reforming into a legitimist regime called the Real America, the Tenners opened up the Forgotten Coast port towns to Caribbean trade. Under the Real America’s direction, Apalachicola and Port St. Joe were transformed into some of the largest smuggling hubs in the country. A cornucopia of drugs, slaves, cash crops, and other commodities flowed through these ports, making the Forgotten Coast a center of Caribbean piracy. Although the FCC towns appreciated the wealth the Real America’s illicit trade brought in, they resented Blountstown’s1 increasingly strict control of the ports themselves. The neo-feudal rulers were taking all the wealth, while local authorities in Apalachicola and Port St. Joe were left to deal with the crime and squalor this business produced.
The Liberation
Years later, they discovered a way out. They made contact with the rump state government in Winter Haven and the United States of America in Exile, a US claimant government established in northern Cuba by the remnants of the WWIII US invasion force. After years of tumultuous military rule, native insurrection, and steady democratic reform, the USAIE was finally ready to exert its influence over the mainland. Their main priority was to fight back against the plague of Caribbean piracy and establish a foothold in Florida. The Winter Haven government could help with this, but as a landlocked government, the best they could do is meet New Miami halfway after the exiles make a landing; the USAIE is strong, but not quite strong enough to storm the beaches of Port Charlotte or Sanibel Island unaided. Port St. Joe offered an alternative venue of expansion.
While still paying lip service to Blountstown, Port St. Joe and Apalachicola secretly colluded with the USAIE to give them an easy foothold on the Gulf Coast. When USAIE Marines finally landed on the Forgotten Coast, the port towns practically held the door wide open for them and blocked Real American troops from throwing the exiles back into the sea. The USAIE immediately followed up on the landings with a northern offensive into the Floridian interior, capturing the I-10 towns and pushing the Real America out of Florida entirely. With their mission accomplished, the FCC threw off their shackles and were reorganized by their liberators into the West Florida Liberated Zone.
The Exiles’ Foothold
Today, the Liberated Zone is a regime in transition. They’re mopping up the remnants of the old warlords and drug cartels and cleaning up the decayed Forgotten Coast towns. Crime is rampant and drugs and human trafficking are still a problem, but the Liberated Zone’s empowered police force, combined with the US Marine garrison, are slowly chipping away at the Real America’s vestigial remnants in the Panhandle. New Miami promises that democratic elections will return to the region once it’s been sufficiently pacified, but must remain under emergency rule until that time comes. Unlike some regimes that remain under a perpetual state of emergency, the WFLZ probably will genuinely democratize within the next few years; right now, they’re shooting for 2064, in time for the next upcoming round of USAIE national elections.
Further complicating matters is the WFLZ’s dual allegiance to the USAIE and the State of Florida in Winter Haven. New Miami recognizes Winter Haven as the rightful Floridian government, but so far only cooperates with them at a foreign policy level. New Miami has ambitions of another amphibious landing further east and properly uniting with Winter Haven, but the inland regime has goals of its own. Winter Haven’s cooperation with the USAIE is mostly out of convenience, and the Forgotten Coast is not as interested in Floridan unification as Winter Haven is. The WFLZ’s long-term goal is statehood for West Florida, and potentially for the creation of other USAIE states to serve as a counterbalance against Winter Haven.
Florida Republic
Capital: Lake City
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
Allegiance: Fraternal American Republic
The Florida Republic, also called the Sixth Republic of Florida, is the Sunshine State’s primary far-right faction. They were founded in Lake City by a small, far-right militia not long after the bombs fell on Tallahassee. The “sixth” in their name comes from a complicated, anachronistic justification of their legitimacy by tracing it to previous Floridian governments. In order, we have:
1810: The Republic of West Florida, an American filibuster state that was located entirely in modern-day Louisiana.
1812: The Republic of East Florida, a failed American filibuster state located on Amelia Island, at the southern end of the Sea Islands off Florida’s Atlantic coast.
1817: The Republic of the Floridas, a failed republic proclaimed by Scottish adventurer Gregor MacGregor on the site of the previous Republic of East Florida.
1845-1865: The first iteration of the State of Florida, from its foundation until its occupation by the United States Army at the end of the American Civil War. For a very brief period in 1861, it was an independent republic before it joined the Confederate States of America.
1868-2029: The State of Florida in its longest-lived configuration, from its Reconstruction after the Civil War to the Great War.
2031-2059: The Florida Republic in its modern, much-reduced form.
This sixth republic began as yet another irrelevant, single-town faction, until they came into contact with the 153rd Cavalry Regiment, fleeing east from their destroyed headquarters in Panama City. Going AWOL and absorbing other military odds and ends, they should have destroyed the militiamen and kept on riding. Instead, they flocked to their banner and helped take up the Florida Republic’s cause, bolstering their numbers, training and leading new recruits, and expanding the Republic across the north central Florida region.
The Florida Republic is pretty staunchly right-wing, as militia regimes go. They aren’t in “right wing death squad territory,” but they’re earnest regarding their policies which aim to create a white, Christian republic in the Old American fashion. They’re a little more libertarian in their outlook than the fascist Fraternal American Republic, but this hasn’t stopped them from openly recognizing them as the rightful American government. As of right now, this is mostly a symbolic gesture to try and preserve their autonomy in case Commander Quade ever turns his gaze south. So far, the Georgians have been surprisingly receptive to Lake City’s overtures, perhaps because the Floridians could present a valuable buffer against the intrusive Cuban exiles.
Continuity State of Florida
Capital: Steinhatchee
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Civilian dictatorship)
Allegiance: Congress of Southern States
The Continuity State of Florida is one of the main pretender regimes that’s challenged the Winter Haven government for the succession of the old State of Florida. Its founder was actually a member of the Winter Haven government, long ago. Layne Paxson, aide to the prewar Chief Financial Officer of Florida, escaped the wreckage of Tallahassee and did not follow the rest of the government to Gainesville. He set up shop in Steinhatchee on the Gulf Coast, remotely proclaiming his loyalty to Gainesville despite his insistence that he, and not Gainesville’s preferred appointee, was the rightful Acting CFO of Florida.
After Gainesville was destroyed and its remnants reconvened in Winter Haven, Paxson formed a rival government in Steinhatchee, where he ruled as a petty dictator. He had a small following with some of the refugees that now formed the majority of the town’s population, but didn’t truly reach his stride until the formation of the Florida Republic further north. Disgruntled cavalrymen and state troopers who deserted Lake City for its far-right politics found a suitable alternative in Paxson’s government and propelled him from “refugee camp warden” to up-and-coming warlord. These soldiers were few in number, but they had the experience to train Paxson’s gang of bandits in refugees into adequate fighters.
Steinhatchee’s remote location and miniscule population has prevented the Continuity State from expanding much further than Cross City, but their competency and purported descent from the antebellum state government have enabled their membership in the Congress of Southern States. The CSS’ core members further north don’t suffer from any delusions regarding the Continuity State’s size. The FAR has the Florida Republic, the USAIE has Winter Haven, the USA-Elizabeth City has the east coast, so that leaves the CSS with only one real option for Florida. The Continuity State is small, but it makes for a nice counterweight against the Florida Republic, hampering their expansion and preventing them from linking up with the FAR further north. In return for their cooperation, the State of Alabama helps prop them up with aid shipped in via the Mobile River and along the Gulf Coast.
Grand Oriental Realm
Capital: Ocala
Classification: Religious Faction (Esoteric dictatorship)
Ocala should never have reached the position it’s currently in. It was originally seized by a major from the Florida Highway Patrol who declared himself the new state governor, but he was killed by one of his subordinates who thought he was too freewheeling with their limited pool of rations. That ruler, in turn, was killed by a different Highway Patrol officer. He put an end to the assassinations and coups and established a dictatorial government, but died of malaria with the will that a triumvirate of subordinates look after his infant son until he grew old enough to succeed his office.
After all the infighting, the rulership of the Ocala regime was no longer just Highway Patrol officers, but had come to take on some incoming warlords as well. Abner Varallo was just one such warlord, who sat on the triumvirate. He and his fellow triumvirs knew that none of them were going to wait for this infant to grow up and rule them, and were immediately at each other’s throats. Varallo ended up on top, and enforced his extreme views on his subjects.
Varallo spent his life before the Great War as a pediatric orthopedic surgeon working for the Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa; he soon grew interested in the Shriners parent organization itself and joined as a member. The Shriners had always existed as a light-hearted and jovial fraternity, but Varallo’s own disposition caused him to develop a genuine interest in the occult side of Freemasonry. By the time of the Great War, he had dispensed entirely with the Shriners’ silly rituals and became a fully-fledged occult magician. He combined esoteric practices with actual medicine and held a strange sway over the masses of refugees following him from Tampa.
Now, Ocala is the seat of the Grand Oriental Realm, of which he is the sacred and pluripotent Most Excellent Grand Master. He rules over his subjects with an iron grip, and is feared throughout central Florida as a bogeyman. Compared to other occult warlords, he is less intellectual and flamboyant than some (the Duke of Coalinga), and not as depraved and brutal as others (the Caddo Cultists). As is fitting for a former Shriner, he likens himself to the Pharoahs of ancient Egypt. He may not be the living god of his subjects, but he has all the temporal authority of Ozymandias, before him.
League of Central Florida
Capital: Leesburg
Classification: Local Government (Expanded city government)
The Great War was not kind to Florida’s population of retirees. The Villages, the world’s largest retirement community, home to nearly 100,000 people, was not attacked by any bomb, but only a small handful of its 82% retirement-aged population survived the Starving Time. The senior citizens left behind a startlingly intact, picturesque city almost entirely devoid of inhabitants. This prime real estate was captured by coastal refugees retreating inland, who reoccupied the abandoned homes and organized a militia to defend themselves and govern the reborn settlement.
Further south, nearby Lake County burned. Its largest settlements were consumed by the Orlando Exclusion Zone, and the county seat of Tavares was consumed by the general chaos coming out of the zone. Local Sheriff’s Deputies, militiamen, and vigilantes stood their ground at the chokepoint of Leesburg and maintained order there. Lake County was reestablished in Leesburg, which later united with the refugee settlement in the Villages to establish the League of Central Florida. The League is one of the only democratic factions in Florida, blending municipal government with militia rule through a system of elected officers. For now, it functions as a diarchy between Leesburg and the Villages, but they are steadily expanding southeast towards the Orlando Exclusion Zone, reclaiming and resettling lost territory.
Their hold in the region is tenuous, however, and growing thinner still. They’re locked in a mortal struggle with Grand Master Varallo’s Oriental Realm, and the recent rise of the Winter Haven government means they are now in a race the state’s most powerful faction to reclaim central Florida. They aren’t in direct competition with Winter Haven just yet, but it’s an open secret that Governor Bishop’s plans for northward expansion don’t involve much cooperation with the League. Not all hope is lost for the League, however; the Greek-American warlord of New Hellas has outfitted a volunteer legion to aid them against the Oriental Realm, and the USA-Elizabeth City has voiced an interest in building up the League as a shield against Floridian warlordism.
New Hellas
Capital: Spring Hill
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Ethnic dictatorship)
In the chaotic aftermath of the Great War, many different gangs and warlords fell on Spring Hill, one of Florida’s largest remaining towns in the Tampa Bay metropolitan area. When the dust settled, George Papandrikopoulos, a Greek-American warlord from Tarpon Springs, ended up on top. To legitimize his rule, he christened his regime as New Hellas, leaning into the Greek identity and inviting Greek Americans far and wide to resettle in his territory. His efforts to encourage Greek culture and Greek Orthodoxy2 among his population have been modestly successful, although most of his subjects still speak English as their only language.
In this respect, Papandrikopoulos is one of the last of the “ethnic” warlords who attempted to forge a realm on the basis of ethnic diaspora identity as its uniting principle. Similar efforts were attempted with New Norway in northeast Iowa and the Volksbund in central Texas, as well as smaller, even more ephemeral ethnic statelets that got swept away during the Starving Time. There are other regimes in America that explicitly reject any kind of White Anglo identity, but they are either other white settler factions (Maine’s Acadia and Louisiana’s Acadia, both of which speak French), Hispanic-identity factions (Aztlan), African-American factions (Osiris’ gang), Native American factions (the numerous Indian reservations and tribal governments), or foreign occupation regimes (the Russian naval district in Washington). New Hellas, along with a few Italian groups up north and some fringe religious movements, are the only factions based around immigrant diaspora communities.
Diplomatically, New Hellas tries to ride the line between isolationism and interventionism. They would really like for the Winter Haven government to just ignore them, and greatly regret Winter Haven’s recent annexation of Dade City. To try and prove their worth to the rest of Florida, the Greeks have formed a volunteer legion to help the League of Central Florida in its fight against Varallo’s Oriental Realm.
State of Florida
Capital: Winter Haven
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
Allegiance: United States of America in Exile (New Miami, Cuba)
Acting Governor Bishop
During the Florida rump government’s brief stay in Gainesville before it was destroyed, the Acting Governor appointed several local officials to his new government. One such official, Superintendent Tyler Bishop of the Alachua County Public Schools district, was appointed to the state senate and became its sole survivor after Gainesville was wiped out. Escaping with a handful of followers, he re-established a state government in Winter Haven, a small city east of Lakeland whose population was bolstered by refugee waves.
As Acting Governor, Tyler Bishop spent his rule slowly consolidating his hold over Winter Haven, trying to keep the triple threats of starvation, raiders, and tropical diseases at bay. Under his reign, the State of Florida was little more than a dictatorial city-state. It didn’t even control all of Polk County and was overshadowed by the Lake King, a powerful warlord in Lakeland. Few Floridians outside of Polk County considered them any more legitimate or viable than the Florida Republic or the Continuity State, if they were aware of their claim at all. For much of this period, the Real America and Libertalia were considered the state’s preeminent factions.
The Florida Hegemon
After Tyler Bishop’s death, his son Maverick Bishop succeeded him as Acting Governor. Winter Haven had successfully pulled through the Starving Time, and now was the time for Bishop II to follow up on his progenitor’s work by going on the offensive. Fortunately for Winter Haven, the Lake King met an untimely demise when one of his own subordinates fell in love with a woman from his harem and murdered him. Bishop’s new and improved State of Florida capitalized on the Lake King’s death and quickly expanded throughout central Florida. Within a few years, Winter Haven had established itself as the region’s hegemon. Acting Governor Bishop was rewarded for his efforts by winning the recognition of the United States of America in Exile across the Florida Straits as the rightful state government.
The Winter Haven government is, in practice, a neo-feudal dictatorship; the state government that bears the closest resemblance to it is perhaps the Provisional Government of California or the USA-Mt. Pleasant. Local authorities, whether they descend from prewar institutions or are the fiefdoms of warlords, retain considerable autonomy under the Acting Governor’s rule, provided they pay money and resources to Winter Haven and contribute military forces when called upon. Acting Governor Bishop does not intend to keep affairs this way, however. He has put a halt on territorial expansion to focus on centralizing his rule, putting him at odds with some of his subordinates. Winter Haven has many remote subjects that profess their loyalty, like Everglades City and the Liberated Zone, but all of them are too distant and too independent for the Acting Governor to effectively control. With the exception of the Florida Crackers, the federal government in New Miami has more sway over these regions than Florida itself.
Reformists and Absolutists
There currently exist two main camps within Winter Haven regarding the state’s future: the reformists and the absolutists. Both camps want to unite the state under Winter Haven’s rule, but they have different ideas on what a united Florida would look like and how it would fit within the wider USAIE. The reformists are at least nominally on board with New Miami’s calls for democratic elections in Winter Haven, although they aren’t exactly liberals. The reformists envision Florida as a kind of oligarchic, mercantile republic operating under New Miami’s loose supervision and protection; they want Florida to be the USAIE’s model state, or even its only state, and have no deep-rooted desire for national unification.
The absolutists, on the other hand, are fervently loyal to Maverick Bishop and support his centralizing reforms. They want to transform Florida into a well-oiled autocracy that can challenge New Miami for leadership of the USAIE itself. Florida should not just be an appendage of the USAIE, so they argue, but its new homeland. A united Florida with Cuba’s resources and population at its disposal would be a powerhouse; it could serve as the engine that will drive Bishop to reunify the nation, working his way north up the east coast. It’s an extremely ambitious plan, and the absolutists are playing with fire by trying to subvert the USAIE, but if they can crack the Admiralty before the US Marines do, then they may very well be able to achieve at least the first step of their master plan.
Sam Albemarle
Capital: Sebring
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Sam Albermarle is Sebring’s petty warlord, a respected refugee gang leader who is steadily making the transition into legitimate government. He came very close to joining the Winter Haven government as a neo-feudal vassal, until he heard that the Acting Governor just started centralizing his rule. Now he stands in opposition to Winter Haven, but will likely not last long, as he is the first target on Winter Haven’s hit list.
Freddy Gat
Capital: Arcadia
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Freddy Gat is your typical, low-life gangster warlord. He’s got a short temper and good aim. Most of the commerce in his domain consists of fencing pirate booty and smuggling it into Winter Haven. He’s small fry for a warlord and is barely even on the Admiralty’s radar.
The Admiralty
Capital: Port Charlotte
Classification: Warlord (Pirate dictatorship)
When Tampa, Sarasota, Cape Coral, and Fort Myers were all destroyed, the cities of Port Charlotte, Bonita Springs, and Naples were all slated to become Florida’s new largest cities on the Gulf Coast. Refugees by the millions fled to this region, fighting with one another and dying either to violence, disease, or starvation. The region developed into Florida’s greatest pirate stronghold as a consequence.
A coalition of warlords developed here, establishing a polity called Libertalia; a rough, rowdy, and lawless place whose leaders could barely cooperate enough to stave off a foreign threat. Warlords were frequently killed or overthrown by their subordinates, who would then take the old warlord’s place in the alliance. Together, they supported pirate expeditions operating out of their harbors, who would attack maritime shipping or smuggle goods from abroad.
With the rise of the USA-in-Exile across the Florida Straits and other foreign powers opposed to piracy, the Libertalian alliance needed to adapt and overcome, or else it would perish. Their answer came in the corporeal form of Admiral Roger Whyte, the warlord of Sanibel Island. He sensed an opportunity when the warlord of nearby Pine Island was lost at sea in a storm, leaving his fiefdom leaderless. Whyte stepped in and took the island for himself, triggering a free-for-all as the Libertalian warlords vied for supremacy. Against all odds, he managed to overcome his foes in Port Charlotte and Bonita Springs and consolidated the disparate holdings of Libertalia into a single, united faction: the Admiralty.
Marshalling all the combined forces of the Admiralty, Admiral Whyte has given a second wind to Caribbean piracy, rivalling other pirate powers like the Spanish Armada in Cuba, the Third Haitian Empire, and the Second Republic of Pirates in the Bahamas. Whyte no longer merely provides a safe harbor and financial backing for pirates, but actively organizes and dispatches pirate fleets. His new domain has proved more than a formidable rival for the USAIE; the primary reason New Miami is so willing to work with Winter Island is to build a coalition that can stand up to Admiral Whyte both on land and sea.
Popeye
Capital: Marco Island
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Popeye is the last stubborn holdout of old Libertalia resisting Admiral Whyte’s authority, thumbing his nose at Sanibel from his stronghold on Marco Island. Whyte doesn’t want to waste his resources on a costly assault on the island, and has instead tried to starve Popeye out by attacking his shipping. Between the might of the Admiralty and the increasingly assertive USAIE presence in Everglades City, Popeye is likely not going to hold out much longer. His best bet may be to reach some kind of plea deal with New Miami, surrendering the island over to the US Navy in exchange for his freedom.
Everglades City
Capital: Everglades City
Classification: Local Government (Local emergency government)
Allegiance: State of Florida, United States of America in Exile (New Miami, Cuba)
The vast majority of Everglades City’s population today are descended from tourists who were visiting during the Great War. The city was remote enough, however, that the usual chaos that gripped the rest of the state played out differently here. Things were certainly grim—the elderly visitors, as always, were the first to go—but the tourists successfully integrated into the city during the Starving Time. The militia was led by an airboat tour captain and bolstered by game wardens from the Big Cypress Wildlife Management Area. Together, they survived off of fishing, hunting, agriculture (the tropical climate allowed here it even during the Nuclear Winter) and alligator farming, as well as limited trade with the outside world.
Everglades City suffered numerous pirate raids, especially by the pirates of Marco Island. During the worst attacks, the townsfolk simply fled into the swamp on their airboats and hid until the pirates left. On one occasion, the drunken, riotous pirates squatting on the island were driven into the sea by a coordinated nighttime assault; the militiamen fed the captured pirates to the alligators to send a message to Marcos Island.
The people of Everglades City fear the pirates no longer, however. They’ve recently made contact with Winter Haven and the USAIE, who have shored up their defenses with a permanent military garrison. Now the city is a major jumping off point for USAIE antipiracy operations, and its small airport is critical for communications between New Miami and Winter Haven.
Conch Republic
Capital: Key West
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Flawed democracy)
The Florida Keys Abandoned
The Conch Republic has roots stretching back to the 1980s, when local authorities jokingly seceded from the United States in response to an inconvenient roadblock set up by the US Border Patrol during the War on Drugs. The term stuck around as a cause for local celebration and to boost tourism, but became much more relevant after the Great War, when Monroe County was left to fend for itself by the Gainesville government.
Naval Air Station Key West, the principal military installation of the Florida Keys, was not nuked but did face heavy conventional bombardment. Not much remained to bombard anyway—most of its men and aircraft participated in the invasion of Cuba and were either stuck across the straits or dead by the end of the nuclear exchange. The US Navy briefly gathered at Key West for a few days, rounding up military odds and ends from across southern Florida, but had no intention of sticking around and waiting for a secondary strike. Instead, they took whatever and whoever they could carry with them and made for Cuba, with some splitting off toward Daytona Beach (where they were nuked) or North Carolina. Only a paltry, skeleton crew garrison of Coast Guardsmen was left behind to defend the Keys.
The Second Conch Republic
Monroe County made the hard choice of isolating themselves from the madness of mainland Florida and closed the islands off from the tidal wave of refugees fleeing Miami. They organized a local militia to maintain order and help the Coast Guard in keeping the refugees out. Maintaining a localist platform, they abandoned any pretense of national loyalty altogether after Gainesville was destroyed, reviving the Conch Republic moniker in earnest and genuinely seceding from the United States. Most Coast Guardsmen didn’t object, while those who did packed up and sailed elsewhere. The militia grew to become the infant Republic’s most powerful institution, but it cannot truly be called a warlord or militia regime. The militia might better be described as an influential arm of the government, and the Republic even holds elections of dubious integrity.
The Conch Republic initially served as a platform for pirates—a necessary action taken to sustain the islanders after contact with the mainland was lost. Recently, however, the Admiralty’s monopolistic level of control over Floridan piracy made the Conch Republic pirates non-competitive. An even more pressing issue is the rise of the USAIE, which has taken a very strong stance against pirates and has threatened Key West with a punitive expedition if they did not expel pirates from their ports. Instead, the Republic has shifted towards more legitimate business with the mainland and the rest of the Caribbean. The Conch Republic remains a shady place, but it’s about as clean as one can hope for in southern Florida.
United Seminole Tribes
Capital: Big Cypress
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Though the Great War was very hard on all Floridians, the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians fared better than many others. Their position at the edge of the Everglades helped shield them from the bulk of the violence that afflicted the rest of the state, and the Miccosukee, who had always prided themselves on their self-sufficiency and reliance on traditional living, fared especially well. Seminole Indians from across the state migrated south to join the Big Cypress Seminole, especially after the Brighton Reservation was overrun by raiders.
Despite their differences, the Seminole and Miccosukee tribes banded together as the United Seminole Tribes to resist the encroachment of greedy warlords and raiders. They still remain isolated from the rest of Florida, maintaining their self-reliance and staying out of northern entanglements. They still conduct trade with outsiders, however, and get the odd traveller coming by to visit their gambling halls or hunt in the Everglades. The United Tribes do not recognize any state or federal government.
Okeechobee Republic
Capital: Belle Glade
Classification: Warlord (Warlord state)
The Okeechobee Republic is one of three factions that lives along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. The republic is a classic warlord state: a degenerate paradise for the worst that Miami and Port Ste. Lucie had to offer, all the flotsam and jetsam of America’s vice city that managed to survive the bombs. Raiders congregate here, swapping loot and slaves, gambling, and drinking before they set out for the wasteland to raid foreign settlements or scavenge in the Miami Exclusion Zone. The Okeechobee Republic’s president is a former child soldier, who once fought for a prewar DJ-turned-warlord.
Florida Crackers
Capital: Moore Haven
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
Allegiance: State of Florida, United States of America in Exile (New Miami, Cuba)
It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that much of the violence that overtook southern Florida followed racial lines. There were—and still are—black warlords, Hispanic warlords, the Native American tribes in Big Cypress, and others. Whites were no exception to this trend, and many also organized themselves into racial gangs. The Florida Crackers were one such warband, a racially-minded vigilante gang who drew upon the image of the state’s first white American settlers to gather support. Few of their members are actually descended from real 19th Century Florida Crackers—most are the descendants of recent arrivals, from the 1920s land speculation boom at the earliest. But the image of hard-willed, independent ranchers and buckaroos was an appealing one, given the circumstances inland Floridians found themselves in, and there was no shortage of vengeful suburbanites who wanted to punish what they saw as a legion of looters and thieves.
After much bloodshed and ethnic cleansing, the Florida Crackers settled down in Moore Haven, the seat of Glades County, whose vestigial remains have been incorporated into the militia regime for purposes of legitimacy. Here they sit and scowl at their racial enemies on the other side of Lake Okeechobee, preparing for a final conclusion to what has been, in their minds, a thirty-year race war.
The Crackers have found an ally in the Winter Haven government and its accompanying USAIE. They are vocal critics of the USAIE’s attempts to integrate Cuban-Americans and native Cubans, but get along well with Winter Haven. Governor Bishop has never officially implemented any racial policies, but his suburban support base has always favored exclusionary, implicitly pro-white policies, and his emergency austerity measures tend to favor whites at the expense of racial minorities. The Crackers want to join forces with Winter Haven and convince them to adopt a more explicit racial platform, while Winter Haven hopes to use the militiamen as a springboard for an upcoming advance into southern Florida. New Miami doesn’t recognize the Crackers as a legitimate organization, but they as of yet can’t project enough power into inland Florida to do anything about them.
El Presidente
Capital: Okeechobee
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
El Presidente is the boisterous, larger-than-life warlord of the city of Okeechobee (not to be confused with the Okeechobee Republic further south). He fancies himself as a godfather to his subjects and takes good care of them, as long as they are loyal. El Presidente has a brutal streak though, and proudly displays the skulls of those who have tried to betray him. El Presidente obviously prefers Hispanics within his fiefdom and build his gang along racial lines at the start, but his realm isn’t an outright ethnic state like Glades County or the Seminole Tribes. He’s carefully watched Winter Haven and noticed the momentum they’re gathering, and is now trying to put together a coalition of warlords that can resist the government advance.
Vero Beach Boys
Capital: Vero Beach
Classification: Warlord (Local warlord gang)
While Gainesville and Tallahassee went up in flames, a dictatorial local police regime attempted to keep Vero Beach afloat. Refugees from across Florida’s forlorn Atlantic coast swarmed the city, depleting its resources and overcrowding its limited real-estate. The Vero Beach Boys gained prominence as a localist militia similar to Malibu’s Malibu Locals Only, and overthrew the floundering police department before expelling all the tourists and refugees. They occasionally harbor Caribbean pirates on their way north, but Vero Beach is a very small operation even compared to the Pirates of Penzance or the Gulf Coast Republic. They won’t be around much longer—both the State of Florida and the Florida Frontier District are eyeing them as one of their next big targets.
Though, like all cities, Vero Beach lost most of its population during the Starving Time, one casualty in particular was notable: the former President of Ukraine, who was evacuated to the city and naturalized as an American citizen after the fall of his administration during a long and ultimately unsuccessful war with Russia in the 2020s. The honor of being a former president still counted for something during the Starving Time, and he remained in the good grace of the police regime that initially controlled the city. Unfortunately, he got wound-up enough with the government that the Vero Beach Boys executed him along with the rest of the police department after they overran the city.
Florida Frontier District
Capital: Palm Coast
Classification: Military Faction (Elizabeth City naval governate)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Palm Coast Province
Capital: Palm Coast
New Smyrna Province
Capital: New Smyrna
Jupiter Province
Capital: Jupiter
Several days after initial 48-hour nuclear exchange, a surviving Rear Admiral of the United States Fleet Forces Command brought his battered Carrier Strike Group to port at Daytona Beach. For the next five weeks, the town served as a rallying point for remnants of the United States Fleet Forces Command, under orders from the Twin Falls government. It was suddenly destroyed in a secondary strike by a nuclear submarine from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, wiping out most of the military presence there.
The survivors of the secondary strike coalesced into the two most-intact remaining units, Destroyer Squadron 28 and Submarine Squadron 20. They fortified the towns of Palm Coast and Jupiter, leaving behind a garrison along with one nuclear submarine each, using the reactors to provide the towns with electricity. The rest of the fleet fled north to regroup with the rest of the USFFC at Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
The years passed, and the naval presence at Elizabeth City overtook the state government there and established their own national government. The United States of America (Elizabeth City) returned to their Floridian holdings, reinforced the towns of Palm Coast and Jupiter, and battled local warlords. They drove back hostile forces on the perimeter of Palm Coast and Jupiter, pacified the discontented local population, and even established a new settlement at New Smyrna.
Elizabeth City’s holdings have been consolidated into the Florida Frontier District, which is itself divided into three “provinces”: the Palm Coast Province, New Smyrna Province, and Jupiter Province. The district is under military rule by the US Navy, which administers the towns and works with cooperative local authorities. New Smyrna Province is their most recent conquest, so military rule is harder and more direct there than in the other provinces, which are more opened up to local civilian input. New Smyrna is also a more coherently planned “model colony,” and most of its population growth is due to USA-EC settlement. These settlers are pioneers from North Carolina and Virginia, as well as immigrants from the the overseas American diaspora communities.3 Palm Coast and Jupiter, on the other hand, are less planned-out settlements, receive less funding from Elizabeth City, and aren’t popular destinations for Elizabeth City or diaspora settlers; most of their immigrants come from elsewhere within Florida.4
Florida Emergency Police
Capital: Palatka
Classification: Warlord (Vigilante gang)
The Florida Emergency Police should not be confused with an actual police force. A few of their founding members were former law enforcement officers, but the FEP has always been a warband of vigilantes and survivalists interested only in their own well-being. Like other regions of inland Florida, the hinterlands south of Jacksonville collapsed into anarchy, and it was the FEP who ended up on top of the remains of Palatka. They rule the region in a proto-feudal fashion, periodically launching raids into the countryside to siphon food and other resources from smaller farming towns like Hastings and Satsuma. They still haven’t quite crystallized into an actual neo-feudal regime yet, but they’re tending in that direction.
The First Coast
Capital: St. Augustine
Classification: Warlord (Warlord state)
The United States’ oldest inhabited city still endures, having narrowly escaped nuclear destruction after nearby Jacksonville was destroyed. As the northernmost inhabitable point of Florida’s Atlantic coast, St. Augustine became a very defensible position for any warlord daring enough to take it.
Just such a warlord emerged, coming south from Jacksonville and proclaiming the warlord state of the First Coast. Using the 400 year old fortress Castillo de San Marcos as his headquarters, his army took over the city and selectively admitted locals and other refugees into their ranks. St. Augustine does harbor pirates on occasion, but it is far from a meaningful contributor to the city’s economy, much less its military and government. Most of these pirates are more focused on raiding and trading with small coastal settlements further north than they are competing for a slice of the Caribbean, where much more powerful pirates already have dominance. Given the recent rise of the USA-EC and its formidable navy, Atlantic piracy and smuggling present increasingly great risk for a rapidly dwindling reward.
The First Coast’s proximity to the naval governate in Palm Coast has frequently brought them into conflict with the USA-Elizabeth City over the years. St. Augustine is too tough of a nut for the Florida Frontier District to crack—they’ve skirmished with the First Coast in the past and learned that a frontal assault isn’t worth it. Elizabeth City has more pressing concerns up north and doesn’t want to divert the resources necessary to crush the First Coast, so they’re now shifting towards the conciliatory approach that served them well in South Carolina and Massachusetts. They’re applying maritime pressure with a blockade combined with diplomatic overtures, hoping to coax St. Augustine into accepting a deal for their surrender in exchange for a full pardon for the entire regime.
Index
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Although the Real America was a fairly mobile state transitioning out of neo-nomadism, Blountstown served as its main administrative center.
As the seat of America’s largest remaining Greek community, New Hellas has successfully lobbied the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America into relocating its episcopal seat to Spring Hill from its previous, temporary quarters in Laconia, New Hampshire, which was itself established by seminarians fleeing Brookline, Massachusetts.
Most of these foreign settlers come from USA-EC allies or territories affiliated with the United States of America Abroad, the USA-EC’s foreign service. These include the State of São Paulo, the Afrikaner Volkstaat, the State of Israel (the north is gone, but a rump state is still going strong in the Negev region), the Republic of Bermuda, the Republic of Liberia, and the USA-EC’s Territory of Antarctica, among others. More information on the USAA and the American diaspora will come in a future article.
Most of these Floridian immigrants are neo-serf escapees from Floridian warlord regimes, NEZ dwellers, and other people trying to get out of dodge. The US Navy has work programs for these people and employs them with military labor, public works, and NEZ reclamation. They have a strict policy of not arming Floridian immigrants or allowing them to serve in non-menial roles unless they can demonstrate useful skills. There are different opinions among the locals regarding this arrangement. Entrepreneurs like the fresh supply of cheap labor, localists want them barred from entry altogether, and reformists want to introduce education programs for newcomers to properly integrate them.
New Smyrna can’t survive without a constant influx of cigarettes
this is amazing