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.
Is there a lot of Catholic activity there? I try to pick up on stuff like this (St. Marys, Kansas and Hanceville, Alabama are notable Catholic centers in this setting) but a lot of it flies under my radar.
Realistically Vandalia would probably still be around, I totally forgot the reason why I nuked it on this map, but it shows up on an old government targets map from the 80s and I couldn’t think of anything to put there anyway.
There would be no way of knowing if you're an outsider, it isn't quite as pronounced as in places like St. Mary's but it definitely is. Effingham itself is probably 50/50 Catholic vs Protestant, but the country skews heavily Catholic. About a quarter of the seminarians for our diocese (covering most of central Illinois) have come from our county in recent years. The Franciscans have historically had a large presence in the area, running most of the country parishes still to this day.
There we go, I have amended the article to account for this. It's a small enough change that I could get it done in a few minutes. I might not have done so if it were a larger faction, but the Outlaws are pretty generic and I like the idea of a religious faction in the area, plus Vandalia got unfairly nuked. I think it's important for these small-town factions to reflect the character of the area, when applicable.
If I had known about this sooner I probably would have incorporated it, because I already feel that Roman Catholics are a little bit underrepresented in this setting. But I typically don't like to amend existing lore once it's out or make post-hoc adjustments to the map when I can help it.
I might make an exception and rework this later on. Maybe un-nuke Vandalia and give that to the Outlaws (fitting city name for a bunch of barbarian despoilers), and try to devise some kind of Catholic faction for Effingham.
Lol, that's awesome bro. Thanks for taking that all into account.
A bit of IRL lore about Vandalia, allegedly the city name came from a travelling con-man who convinced the town that the natives who lived there were named the Vandals as a practical joke. The locals decided to name themselves after the "ancient Indian tribe" and didn't find out it was a lie until they had already officially taken the name Vandalia.
I'm excited to keep seeing how this project develops, it's been cool to follow so far!
I’m grateful to have enthusiastic readers who want to engage with the story and offer their insight. I’ve gotten a lot of good tidbits from readers so far that I’ve either already inserted or plan to in future articles.
That’s a neat story about Vandalia, by the way. I think FC is a really neat setting partly because it opens up opportunities to explore these obscure small towns and uncover what makes them unique. Like that one town in Iowa that has the national Norwegian fest, or all the weird subterranean houses in Taos, New Mexico, I never knew about these things before doing research on this project.
I think that’s the cool thing about a project that takes local settings into account like FC seems to. It lets people look at it and go “oh hey, that’s me!” which for a lot of smaller communities doesn’t happen a lot. Definitely a really great way to get reader engagement.
Halfway done on that article. Some personal stuff has come up in my life that's kept me from working on it the past few days, but it shouldn't be too long until the Indiana article comes out.
Quincy would have been the largest, had the government not excluded the vast majority of people who tried to move there and kept the city under lock and key. Decatur and Bloomington received some refugees and had enough resources to spare so that not all of them starved, and are generally less isolated from their surrounding environs.
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.
Is there a lot of Catholic activity there? I try to pick up on stuff like this (St. Marys, Kansas and Hanceville, Alabama are notable Catholic centers in this setting) but a lot of it flies under my radar.
Realistically Vandalia would probably still be around, I totally forgot the reason why I nuked it on this map, but it shows up on an old government targets map from the 80s and I couldn’t think of anything to put there anyway.
There would be no way of knowing if you're an outsider, it isn't quite as pronounced as in places like St. Mary's but it definitely is. Effingham itself is probably 50/50 Catholic vs Protestant, but the country skews heavily Catholic. About a quarter of the seminarians for our diocese (covering most of central Illinois) have come from our county in recent years. The Franciscans have historically had a large presence in the area, running most of the country parishes still to this day.
There we go, I have amended the article to account for this. It's a small enough change that I could get it done in a few minutes. I might not have done so if it were a larger faction, but the Outlaws are pretty generic and I like the idea of a religious faction in the area, plus Vandalia got unfairly nuked. I think it's important for these small-town factions to reflect the character of the area, when applicable.
If I had known about this sooner I probably would have incorporated it, because I already feel that Roman Catholics are a little bit underrepresented in this setting. But I typically don't like to amend existing lore once it's out or make post-hoc adjustments to the map when I can help it.
I might make an exception and rework this later on. Maybe un-nuke Vandalia and give that to the Outlaws (fitting city name for a bunch of barbarian despoilers), and try to devise some kind of Catholic faction for Effingham.
Lol, that's awesome bro. Thanks for taking that all into account.
A bit of IRL lore about Vandalia, allegedly the city name came from a travelling con-man who convinced the town that the natives who lived there were named the Vandals as a practical joke. The locals decided to name themselves after the "ancient Indian tribe" and didn't find out it was a lie until they had already officially taken the name Vandalia.
I'm excited to keep seeing how this project develops, it's been cool to follow so far!
I’m grateful to have enthusiastic readers who want to engage with the story and offer their insight. I’ve gotten a lot of good tidbits from readers so far that I’ve either already inserted or plan to in future articles.
That’s a neat story about Vandalia, by the way. I think FC is a really neat setting partly because it opens up opportunities to explore these obscure small towns and uncover what makes them unique. Like that one town in Iowa that has the national Norwegian fest, or all the weird subterranean houses in Taos, New Mexico, I never knew about these things before doing research on this project.
I think that’s the cool thing about a project that takes local settings into account like FC seems to. It lets people look at it and go “oh hey, that’s me!” which for a lot of smaller communities doesn’t happen a lot. Definitely a really great way to get reader engagement.
Getting close to indiana…
Halfway done on that article. Some personal stuff has come up in my life that's kept me from working on it the past few days, but it shouldn't be too long until the Indiana article comes out.
niggas really called themselves gaylords
Yeah but they don't fuck around though https://redd.it/1fmu8wv
Admittedly a little surprised to see Decatur as the largest city & not a river city
Quincy would have been the largest, had the government not excluded the vast majority of people who tried to move there and kept the city under lock and key. Decatur and Bloomington received some refugees and had enough resources to spare so that not all of them starved, and are generally less isolated from their surrounding environs.