The Fallen Continent: Illinois
New powers begin to take root in the Land of Lincoln, which is beginning to recover from its long anarchy.
Population: 350,000
Largest City: Decatur
Not without thy wondrous story
Can be writ the nation's glory;
On the record of thy years,
Abraham Lincoln's name appears,
Grant and Logan, and our tears,
Illinois.
Introduction
Illinois was very, very badly affected by the war. Some states came through the Great War relatively well-off. Illinois was not one of those states. The third-largest city in the United States was naturally a target for intense nuclear bombardment, and the hordes of refugees sent flying in all directions caused as much damage as the fallout during the Starving Time. Chicagoland is gone, and the rest of Illinois has long since been plunged into anarchy. Lots of small factions can be found across the Land of Lincoln, but no large ones.
Many of these factions are petty warlords and the descendants of prewar Chicago street gangs, but some factions are beginning to put down roots and lay the foundations for larger, more permanent movements. These factions, like Nuclear Recovery Authority, Almighty Gaylords, and Social Democratic State of Lincoln have the potential to become powerhouses of the Midwest in the coming years, if they can only withstand the immediate trials laid out before them.
State of Illinois
Capital: Quincy
Classification: State Legacy (State emergency government)
Allegiance: United States of America (Dodge City)
By the end of the first nuclear exchange, effectively all of Illinois could be considered a disaster area. The federal government abandoned the state outright and withdrew all its forces to other, more secure locations like Twin Falls, Idaho and St. Cloud, Minnesota. Even the rump government—initially hastily convened in Decatur—was too terrified of the refugee situation to want to deal with it. The rightful Acting Governor, the surviving Illinois Attorney General, abandoned his post only three months after the nuclear exchange, stole a plane, and left the state for warmer climes.
The exact fate of Acting Governor DeLeon is unknown, but there are theories surrounding his destination. Many of the USA claimant governments all have stories about mysterious figures who arrived by plane or boat and were surprisingly amicably received by the authorities and given preferential treatment over the refugees. The one-time DA of Woodward County, Oklahoma matches DeLeon’s description, as does an emergency appointee state legislator of the Tupelo government of Mississippi.
Whatever may have happened to DeLeon is irrelevant, however. The fact of the matter is that he shirked his gubernatorial responsibilities and left the state without leadership at a crucial moment. It is here where the Illinois state government first splits. Believing that their position in Decatur was untenable, a coalition of state officials (four state representatives, two state senators, two Illinois State Police majors, and the personnel of the 766th Brigade Engineer Battalion) made the trek to Quincy, a small city on the Mississippi River. There, they proclaimed a new emergency government and elected one of the senators as Acting Governor of Illinois. Back in Decatur, a local strongman took advantage of the power vacuum and established his own rival government, which persists to this day.
The Quincy Government had no intention of trying to shepherd the rest of the state throughout the Starving Time. Even if they had wanted to, the gangs and warlords had already caused so much damage by that point that it would have been a futile errand. Most of the food stocks had already been devoured, the farmland despoiled and the authorities overrun, and any surviving authorities were too isolated and concerned with their own matters to cooperate with Quincy. But that’s all assuming that Quincy had idealistic goals and assumptions regarding the state’s future. They did not.
The State of Illinois in Quincy is the textbook example of an isolationist, survivalist government that prioritized its own survival above all else. It admitted virtually no refugees and freely sacrificed all its territory until it became no more than a city-state in and around Quincy itself. There was no high-minded discussion about recognizing national governments, rationing reform, or restoring electoral democracy. The Quincy government had only three goals: don’t freeze, don’t starve, and keep the rabble out.
The Quincy Government prioritized its own leadership first and foremost, along with their immediate family and other dependents. After them came the rank-and-file state troopers and National Guardsmen who upheld their rule, and in a distant third came the people of Quincy and the surrounding countryside who contributed the food and other goods and services that kept everyone alive. This tight-knit system held nothing left in reserve for anyone else, and persisted in this manner for many years. Even the Winner government of South Dakota didn’t match Quincy’s levels of solipsistic isolationism and self-favoritism.
Nonetheless, the times are changing and the Quincy Government has finally abandoned its extremely isolationist outlook. The increased need for foreign goods (both within the USA and beyond) has forced them to try their hand at the Mississippi River trade, and they’ve become heavily reliant on the Columbia Government of Missouri for mutual defense.
With the aid of Missouri, they’ve steadily expanded south and east into the Illinois hinterland, but have snagged at the Illinois River, where they met the fiercely localist State of Forgottonia. Any hope for expansion is dependent almost totally on the willingness of Missouri-Columbia to sent more resources their way. To this end, Illinois has joined the Dodge City Convention as the USA-DC’s youngest and remotest member. In order to sate the Convention’s democratic requirements, Quincy now holds pro forma elections to give the illusion of a democratic government. They’re far enough away that Dodge City really doesn’t care, however, so they do an especially bad job of hiding the fact that their elections are obviously rigged.
In exchange for this small sacrifice, both Columbia and Dodge City have opened Quincy up to a whole new world of trade and communication, and have put this once-irrelevant city-state back on the map as a contender for the future of Illinois. Still, Illinois is not high on the USA-DC’s priority list, and the influx of men and material might not be enough to make up for decades of lost time and zero momentum.
State of Forgottonia
Capital: Jacksonville
Classification: Local Government (Local secessionist government)
The State of Forgottonia (sometimes spelled “Forgotonia”) is the modern manifestation of a now century-old social and political movement local to west-central Illinois. The idea of Forgottonia originated in the 1960s with local industry owners who were upset at the state and federal government’s neglect of the region when it came to funding and infrastructure projects. The name refers to the claim that the sixteen counties of west-central Illinois have been “forgotten” by the state and federal powers, and a tongue-in-cheek state secession movement sprang up in the 1970s around the concept.
Although the Forgottonia idea was itself forgotten by the mid-21st Century, it suddenly became relevant once more following the Great War. West central Illinois was now the largest expanse of unspoiled land left in the state, with plenty of farmland and waterways that were untouched by radiation and remote enough to not have to worry about the refugee gangs from Chicagoland. What’s more, the state government boarded itself up at Quincy and barred itself from contact with the outside world. With a historical precedent for localism and new strong incentives to preserve their local identity, the Forgottonia movement was reborn, albeit slightly south and west of the traditional boundaries of the region.
Despite its rigidly localist origins, the State of Forgottonia is the only truly democratic faction in the state; Illinois-Quincy is a sham democracy, SDS Lincoln is restricted by political ideology, Illinois-Decatur is only just now beginning to awkwardly toy around with a restored democracy, Edgar County is a militaristic stratocracy that rides the line of legitimist warlordism, and Little Egypt is an alliance of a dozen little oligarchies. Forgottonia, by contrast, has regular elections, term limits, a small unicameral legislature, and a rudimentary political party system in which reformist independents can challenge the incumbent Forgottonia People’s Party.
Forgottonia is rich in agricultural produce but lacks much in the way of developed industry. It can fend off the advances of the Quincy Government, but cannot go on the offensive against them with their current weaponry. On the bright side, their northern frontier is secure, thanks to an amiable pact with the Nuclear Recovery Agency, and Lincoln and the IPG are too busy fighting each other and the wasteland warlords to turn their gaze west. Quincy and Forgottonia are locked in a 1v1 for the time being, but neither side can bring enough forces to bear to annihilate the other.
Nuclear Recovery Agency
Capital: Galesburg
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
The Nuclear Recovery Agency is the premiere neo-feudal regime of the Midwest. The USA-Mt. Pleasant or the Second American Republic each previously claimed that distinction, but both of them have transitioned past neo-feudalism into a more centralized, autocratic order—which is exactly what the NRA is trying to do.
The NRA got its start as the warlord army of Happy Wretzky, a bar owner and retired soldier who led a band of refugees out of Chicagoland and into the safer, more intact west of the state. Unlike the other “lifeboat” gangs fleeing the greater Chicago area, the NRA took an especially draconian, hardliner stance against petty crime. Wreztky established his capital in Galesburg and built a neo-feudal order by parceling out the surrounding towns to his loyal lieutenants. Through his system, his small clique of Chicagoan emigrants were the neo-feudal masters, who ruled in conjunction with an agriculturally-experienced class of locally-born middlemen, all lording it over the neo-serf refugees that they resettled throughout the region.
The NRA is small, as neo-feudal regimes go, but not unusually small for the region. The Midwest has a lot of destroyed territory, a larger population than it is able to comfortably support, and not a lot of living space for all of them—which means the Great Lakes states are chock-full of tiny, petty warlords. It does mean that Wretzky was able to exercise a greater degree of control over his subordinates than most neo-feudal masters out west, who only interacted with most of their vassals through tribute extractions. Wretzky, though old, is leveraging this to slowly centralize the NRA into an absolutist autocracy by the time he dies; he wants his son to inherit a stable, powerful regime that will be ready for rapid expansion once the reforms are complete.
Nauvoo Legion
Capital: Nauvoo
Classification: Religious Faction (Religious militia regime)
Allegiance: United States of America (Bozeman)
The city of Nauvoo is historically significant to the Mormon religion. The founder of the Latter-Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith, led his followers there in 1839 and gave the city its name. He died there in 1844, and his followers famously trekked across the country to resettle in Utah. Mormons began to return to Nauvoo in the 20th century and slowly restored the town as a prominent center of the LDS Church, rebuilding the Nauvoo Temple in 2002. By the end of the Great War, it was the most significant Mormon spiritual center left in America and harbored populations of both native-born Mormons and Mormon visitors from throughout the United States and beyond.
After remaining LDS leadership relocated to São Paulo, the Mormon community broke out in schism. Northwest Utah and southeast Idaho became home to the majority of America’s orthodox Mormon population, while southern Utah fell under the control of the radical Fundamentalists, and a new syncretic Purified LDS emerged in central Utah. Back in Illinois, Mormon leadership remained fervently loyal to the orthodox LDS Church in São Paulo, supporting them from a distance and condemning the heretical PLDS and FLDS churches. To protect themselves from warlords and raiders, the Nauvoo Mormons re-founded the Nauvoo Legion, the historic militia of the City of Nauvoo and Joseph Smith’s private army.
The new Legion is a militaristic organization with its own command structure, and is the main ruling power in the area. Officially, they are an organic self-defense militia representing the City of Nauvoo on behalf of the US government in Bozeman, Montana. There is a civilian municipal government that still holds regular elections, but it only governs at the Legion’s discretion. The Legion, meanwhile, operates at the discretion of local religious authorities, who operate somewhat independently of the church in São Paulo.
Despite their nominal allegiance towards USA-Bozeman, the Nauvoo Legion is pragmatically aligned with the Missouri Militia Alliance, Nuclear Recovery Authority, and State of Forgottonia against the USA-Dodge City-aligned states of Missouri and Illinois in Columbia and Quincy, respectively.
Almighty Gaylords
Capital: Rochelle
Classification: Warlord (Gangster proto-state)
The most powerful warlord state out of the Chicagoan anarchy is the Almighty Gaylord Nation, the unlikely victors of a massive series of gang wars among quarreling emigrants. During the period of upheaval caused by the flood of Chicagoan refugees, an enterprising Gaylord lieutenant was able to command the authority of a large refugee column and seize the strategic crossroads of Rochelle. Though dozens of gangs and warlords fought with one another across northern Illinois, the Gaylords were able to outlast them all, carving out a small empire for themselves in the region.
The Gaylords’ meteoric rise to power (or what is considered powerful in northern Illinois, as their fiefdom would not count for much out west) has brought on a wave of change. They are no longer a declining Chicago street gang trading in drugs and weaponry (although they still do those things); they are now beginning the confusing and unwieldy process of transforming into a state, administering territory and incorporating local officials into their regime. It remains to be seen, however, if the Gaylords can forge a viable state and army by the time larger powers reach them.
King of Rockford
Capital: Rockford
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
In the middle of a region dominated by gangs and warlords, the King of Rockford claims to be the ultimate defender of law, order, and decency in the face of anarchy and gangsterism. The reality is that he’s not much better than any of his neighbors, and has to draw from the same pool of violent dregs as any raider band to recruit from.
His continued existence is thanks to his clever diplomacy between the Almighty Gaylords and the throng of warlord gangs up north in Wisconsin, whom he plays off of one another. Rockford is unlikely to remain an independent power for long, however. They might just get subsumed into the Gaylords if they can get the ball rolling, and they’re certainly dead if the ASFR makes it this far south.
New Chicago
Capital: New Chicago (Ottawa)
Classification: Warlord (Warlord bartertown)
New Chicago, previously the town of Ottawa, was overrun by Chicagoan refugees, much like many other places. While it’s not under gang rule, it certainly accommodates them. It’s your typical wasteland bartertown: a good place to sell stuff—including slaves—fuel up the war rigs, bet on the gladiator matches, and generally rest and recuperate before striking out for the wasteland once more. New Chicago’s bread and butter comes from raider gangs and salvage teams coming to and from the Greater Chicago Exclusion Zone, a vast wasteland spanning much of the shore of Lake Michigan.
Gangster Disciples
Capital: Kanakee
Classification: Warlord (Displaced street gang)
The Gangster Disciples are another gang from Chicago that is a part of the wider Folk Nation gang alliance. The Gaylords incorporated most of the People Nation gangsters and have sent their rivals scattered throughout the state. For now, the Gangster Disciples are holed up in Kankakee, gatekeeping central Illinois from the small fry gangs hiding out in the less-irradiated parts of the wider Chicago Exclusion Zone.
Social Democratic State of Lincoln
Capital: Bloomington
Classification: Left-Wing Ideological Faction (Student revolt state)
Allegiance: Social Progressive Republic of America
The twin cities of Bloomington and Normal are located not far away from Decatur, the site of the first Illinois rump government. The disappearance of Governor DeLeon and subsequent evacuation of the state government to Quincy created a power vacuum in central Illinois, which was filled in Decatur by a warlord strongman, and in Bloomington by socialist rebels.
The revolt originated as a series of pro-government, anti-warlord student protests in Normal’s Illinois State University, staged in response to Luke Cavendish’s takeover in Decatur. The arrival of new waves of Chicagoland refugees to swell the protestors’ ranks fanned the flames of conflict, and before long the student protests escalated into a full-scale socialist revolution that overwhelmed the local authorities in Bloomington. In the process, their nominal allegiance to Quincy was totally forgotten (it’s not like Quincy cared, or was even aware in the first place), and the student revolt eventually became as hostile to Quincy as they already were to Decatur.
By the end of the Starving Time, the revolt was consolidated into the Social Democratic State of Lincoln, a far-left regime with its own progressive state constitution. Given the strenuous circumstances, this constitution is overshadowed by an authoritarian provisional government. Political parties are officially outlawed in Lincoln, but the government rules as if it were a one-party state.
Lincoln stopped just shy of proclaiming their own US government, and instead sided with the Social Progressive Republic of America, a socialist student revolt state in Bloomington, Indiana that already existed at the time of Lincoln’s creation. Despite their shared vision and goals, the two factions still differ in ideology. The SPRA is a more technocratic socialist state, striving to create an efficient, rational, and scientific system of equal resource distribution. Lincoln, meanwhile, follows a platform that more generally resembles the progressive talking points of prewar leftists, with a focus on issues like environmentalism, feminism, sexual deviancy, and racial equality. One of the first actions taken by the SDSL was to legally abolish the “gender binary,” an issue that was on the Senate floor in Washington, D.C. when the bombs first fell. Both the SDSL and the SPRA together are among America’s most intellectual leftist states, in contrast to Paul Blanchard’s genocidal Acadian People’s Republic or Ian Dillard’s more pragmatic ASFR.
Illinois Provisional Government
Capital: Decatur
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Civilian dictatorship)
Allegiance: United States of America (Mt. Pleasant)
Decatur was once the seat of the rump state government following the Great War, until Governor DeLeon’s sudden disappearance and the flight of most remaining government officials to Quincy. Capitalizing on the chaos, a local gunsmith named Luke Cavendish raised an emergency militia, seized power for himself and his supporters, and proclaimed the Illinois Provisional Government. Many of the state officials, legislators, troopers, and National Guardsmen who were left behind sided with Cavendish and joined his regime, while those who refused were all driven out or imprisoned.
While the NRA in Galesburg embraced the refugee wave to resettle them throughout their territory as forced labor, the IPG adopted a localist strategy to keep refugees out and win the support of neighboring towns. The anti-refugee stance wasn’t absolute—a few of Cavendish’s earliest supporters were survivalists and vigilantes from Springfield and Chicagoland—but very few refugees were admitted unless they could demonstrate their proficiency in some desirable skill, and most refugees already present in the area were evicted on the grounds of “vagrancy.”
The IPG rose to prominence as Illinois’ most powerful faction under Cavendish’s rule, although it also made no shortage of enemies for itself in the process. It would be wrong to call the IPG a neo-feudal regime, but it isn’t quite a centralized autocracy either. The relationship between dictatorial Decatur and its semi-autonomous environs is complicated, as most of the IPG’s subordinate towns actually joined voluntarily to keep the bandits, raiders, and useless eaters out. Since Cavendish’s death, the IPG has entered a new era of change and uncertain reform. It is beginning to experiment in the direction of a restored democracy, but retains many features of Cavendish’s dictatorial rule, as well as the vestigial influence of the prewar state government.
In contrast with the IPG’s democratic reforms is their recognition for the autocratic US government in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Like the State of Iowa (with whom Decatur seldom interacts and doesn’t like), they aren’t very fond of Mt. Pleasant itself, but recognize them anyway to justify their opposition to other national governments like the Second American Republic and the USA-Dodge City.
Combat 110
Capital: Danville
Classification: Warlord (Degenerated right-wing militia)
Combat 110 is the preeminent far-right faction of the central Midwestern wasteland, and earned their fame through years of bloody racial combat against the Chicago street gangs and their supporters. They’ve fought for so long and in such harsh conditions that it’s eroded their political and ideological leanings to the point that they’re more of a warrior band of brothers, bound more by battle than a shared political ideology.
Their name is a reference to the anti-Semitic slogan that Jews have been evicted from 109 countries, and that they want the United States of America to be the 110th. They are sworn enemies of the State of Lincoln and are feared and reviled for committing massacres against the Lincolnites during westward excursions. They and Edgar County don’t exactly like each other, but they’ve reached an understanding of mutual non-aggression (and frankly, Edgar County is just about as racist as Combat 110 is). The IPG hates them, but they disregard Combat 110 as merely another warlord band, and not as an ideological or racial foe.
Edgar County
Capital: Paris
Classification: Local Government (Emergency county government)
Sitting on the precarious edge between the civilized world and the tumultuous midwestern wasteland is Edgar County, famed for their extremely draconian stance against refugees. The emergency government that took over Paris in the first days after the Great War immediately set themselves to work, preparing for the eventual refugee onslaught. They dug trenches, laid barbed wire, and encircled the city with Bremer Walls and guard towers in anticipation of the assault. Every able body was mobilized for the defense, and no resource or effort was spared during the preparation.
When the refugees finally came to this fortress city, they were turned away without a second thought. The first few waves simply went around the city and settled down elsewhere. The later waves were far more confrontational. Their ranks were filled with the starving and desperate, the exiled street gangs, the raiders and opportunistic populist demagogues. Throughout the darkest, coldest nights of the nuclear winter, they hurled themselves at Paris’ defenses, and were thrown back every time. Although most of the surrounding countryside was torched, and the townsfolk were tested at the very limits of their capability, the city endured.
Edgar County has recovered today and has resettled the surrounding countryside, but the mental scars have not yet healed. The fortifications still remain in place and are meticulously maintained. All young men are conscripted into the county militia, and participation in the democratic county government comes with the requirement of fifteen years of military service. Paris prides itself on its self-reliance and recognizes no higher government simply on the principle of their own independence. As one of the stronger regimes in the area, they even have ambitions of marching into Indiana and building a small realm of their own.
Marshall Fortress
Capital: Marshall
Classification: Warlord (Vigilante gang)
For the refugees who couldn’t make it into Paris, Marshall was their next best hope. Marshall didn’t exactly throw the doors open to them, but they selectively took on the newcomers with demonstrable skills or useful connections. When the later waves tried to take on Edgar County, the locals of Clark County panicked and formed a vigilante gang to overthrow the government.
The new rulers established the Marshall Fortress, a militaristic, highly-regulated vigilante band that had to fight long and hard to fend off the raiders and gangs that failed to conquer Edgar County and turned their gaze south. The Fortress’ rule isn’t that much better than if an incoming warlord had taken over, but they’re locals, and that’s what matters to the people of Marshall.
Despite the intimidating name, the Marshall Fortress’ defenses are less impressive than their northern neighbor. Marshall likes to consider themselves to be Edgar County’s junior partner, while Edgar County doesn’t want anything to do with them. At least they both know that conflict with one another is unlikely, and that they have each other’s backs in a desperate-enough situation. This frees up Edgar County to focus on the warlords of Indiana, while Marshall can shore up its defenses against the Satanists of Vincennes and the raiders of Effingham.
Effingham County
Capital: Effingham
Classification: Religious Faction (Theocratic county government)
Effingham County is much like Beauregard Parish in Louisiana in that it is a surviving local government under the firm control of the Catholic religious right. The Roman Catholic Church doesn’t have quite the same degree of influence here as in Beauregard Parish or St. Marys, Kansas, but the county government is entirely controlled by Catholics who defer to the Franciscan Order on religious affairs. Also unlike St. Marys or Beauregard, Effingham is definitely in communion with the São Paulo Papacy and there is no doubt as to its canonical status.
Despite their rightist leanings, they try to stay removed from inter-factional affairs or diplomatic entanglements. The IPG and Illinois Home Guard both have territorial ambitions on Effingham, but prefer to keep the theocrats around as a neutral third party who can serve as a buffer and keep the petty warlords in check.1
Outlaws MC
Capital: Vandalia
Classification: Warlord (Outlaw motorcycle gang)
The Outlaws Motorcycle Club is the oldest outlaw biker gang in the world, and like the Hells Angels, once terrorized wide swathes of the American wasteland in the early days of the post-nuclear age. Also like the Hells Angels, all but one of their chapters and clubhouses have either fallen apart, were subsumed into other factions, or were destroyed outright. Both of them have failed to live up to the notorious legacy of the far more successful Bandido Nation in southern Texas. The last extant chapter of the Outlaws MC is located in Vandalia, one of only a handful of towns in a desolate region between central and southern Illinois.
This chapter doesn’t even have direct continuity with the real prewar Outlaws. Its founder was actually an Outlaws member who was expelled from an older, now-extinct chapter for bad behavior. He then founded his own gang, claiming the Outlaws name and patches for himself; he’s only outlasted the real Outlaws due to his chapter’s remote location. Although the Outlaws are a shadow of what they once where during the Starving Time, they aren’t down for the count just yet. They aren’t likely to take over the whole state of Illinois, but could potentially tip the balance decisively in the favor of whichever faction they side with.
Illinois Home Guard
Capital: Mt. Vernon
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
The Illinois Home Guard is a right-wing militia in control of several towns along I-57. They espouse paleoconservative views, toning down racial rhetoric and focusing more on the virtues of sound, conservative government, traditional social roles, and a vaguely-defined affinity for Christianity. Back in the days of the ill-fated Regenerated Congress, they represented the State of Illinois by sending a small delegation to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. After the Regenerated Congress fell apart, the Home Guard recalled their delegation and paid no further heed to the squabblings of the southern rightist factions. The only exception is the Tennessee Patriotic Congress, with whom they still enjoy cordial relations and trade.
Today, the Home Guard is the vanguard of the League of Southern Illinois, a triumvirate of factions that includes Little Egypt and the 81st Troop Command. In addition to their united stance against raiders, they are also aligned together against the Illinois Provisional Government and the Second American Republic. While the soldiers of the 81st are more experienced and Little Egypt possesses a formidable river fleet, the Home Guard is the main land power with the largest military of the three factions.
81st Troop Command
Capital: Carmi
Classification: Military Faction (Rogue military formation)
The 81st Troop Command was the largest single surviving formation of the Indiana National Guard after the Great War. A larger body of Indiana National Guardsmen was gathered up north around Muncie, but they belonged to multiple different smaller units. While the Guardsmen in Muncie established a provisional military government to salvage the state, the 81st Troop Command took charge of Evansville, the state’s largest surviving city. They paid little attention to Muncie’s orders and instead ruled their territory as effective warlords in their own right.
They were in for a rude awakening when Edmund Meryll and his Second American Republic crossed the Ohio River and invaded Indiana. Before long, they had captured Evansville. Much of the 81st surrendered to Meryll then and there, but a stubborn few fought their way west into Illinois and carved out a second home for themselves across the Wabash.
Now the 81st sits and stews in exile from their new headquarters in Carmi. They’re still a rogue military faction and aren’t much more sophisticated than your average legitimist warlord, but they at least know that their continued existence in Illinois is dependent on the goodwill of the locals and the neighboring factions. As such, these Indiana Guardsmen have put in a lot of work to combat banditry and foster good relations with the Illinois Home Guard and Little Egypt. They hope to return to Indiana one day and defeat the Second American Republic once and for all, but they likely won’t get a good opportunity unless the SAR encounters serious setbacks elsewhere in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Little Egypt Association
Capital: Marion
Classification: Local Government (County alliance)
The far south of Illinois has seen its fortunes change since the Great War. The area known as Little Egypt at the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers was once written off as irrelevant, impoverished, and in an irreversible decline before the war. The Great War itself didn’t help, as nuclear attacks on Paducah, Metropolis, and Olmsted (or, more accurately, attacks on their dams, locks, and power plants) bottled up the Ohio River and made traffic extremely dangerous for several years. Nevertheless, they were less badly-afflicted than northern or even central Illinois, and the local government remained intact.
To fill in for the absent state government, twelve counties came together to form a regional government, the Little Egypt Association. A few other counties declined to join or were taken over by warlords; one by one, these counties either joined voluntarily or were compelled to submit through military force. Like many of their neighbors along the Mississippi River, one of the key questions Little Egypt faced was how to handle refugees (who arrived mostly by river from St. Louis and Ohio, rather than by land from Chicago). They admitted more than most other factions in Illinois, but watched them under the careful eye of a paternalistic government that steadily developed into an entrenched oligarchy.
The most noteworthy development in Little Egypt is that of its most characteristic city, Cairo, the southernmost point of Illinois. Cairo, a city long on the decline, was almost completely deserted on the eve of the Great War, with a population of only 900 souls. Its fortunes changed rapidly as tens of thousands of refugees relocated here, at the confluence of the two rivers. Most of these refugees starved (as they did virtually everywhere in America), but those who survived rebuilt Cairo into an affluent, functioning city that amicably joined with the rest of Little Egypt. As America is more reliant on the river trade than it ever was before, Cairo is an important stopping point on the way up both rivers.
Index
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As per the suggestions of the good reader Joe, I have edited this article to change the situation of Effingham and the Outlaws. The Outlaws have been relocated to Vandalia, which had no good reason to be nuked as far as I recall, and Effingham has been placed under the rule of a Catholic government.
As an Illinoisan, I love it. Glad to see that Cairo and Quincy have reclaimed some of their importance and that Effingham gets to be the capital of a faction there. Real central Illinoisans know that there would be a Catholic theocracy in GECA (Greater Effingham County Area) which arises out of Teutopolis and her colonies, but I forgive you for not knowing that.
Getting close to indiana…