The Fallen Continent: New Mexico
Here, the desert sands are stained red with the blood of thousands in the longest sustained conflict in American history.
Population: 490,000
Largest City: Carlsbad
Under a sky of azure, where balmy breezes blow,
Kissed by the golden sunshine, is Nuevo México.
Home of the Montezuma, with fiery hearts a glow,
State of the deeds historic, is Nuevo México.
Introduction
Where Arizona is a battlefield, New Mexico is more of a boneyard. More than half of the state’s population survived the initial nuclear exchange, and no secondary strikes ever hit the country. Starvation remained an issue as it did everywhere, and was worse than other states as it was in Arizona, but nothing ever indicated that the population would drop this low. New Mexico was, in fact, slated to fare quite well compared to most states, and its rump government controlled the entire eastern half of the state. The real cause for New Mexico’s decline is war. Several major wars have culled an appalling percentage of the post-Starving Time population, beginning with the Dodge City-Midland War. The United Indian Nations and George Washington Legion brought further bloodshed, followed by the arrival of the United States of Aztlan to sound Midland’s death knell.
Estado de Nuevo México (Carlsbad)
State of New Mexico (Carlsbad)
Capital: Carlsbad
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Aztlan frontier territory)
Allegiance: United States of Aztlan
Following the destruction of Santa Fe, the Secretary of State of New Mexico (a position that has always been held by a female since its creation in 1926) established a new rump government in Carlsbad alongside other surviving state officials. The Carlsbad government supported the Battista presidency in Twin Falls, followed by Zinn in Amarillo and Ingersoll in Dodge City. New Mexico continued to support Ingersoll following his relocation to Midland and fought alongside the Texas-based government during the Dodge City-Midland War. The conflict turned into a statewide civil war when several pro-Dodge City state legislators fled to Clayton and formed their own rival government.
When the war turned against Midland, Ingersoll responded by frantically purging all internal opposition to his rule. Even many loyal supporters were caught in his paranoid crossfires. When he set his sights on New Mexico, Carlsbad cut ties before any heads could roll. They signed a separate peace with Dodge City, which the Kansas government was weary enough to accept, and hoped they could ride out the American anarchy in isolation. They were proved wrong soon afterward.
Shortly after dämmerung came for Ingersoll, the United States of Aztlan rose to the scene. Aztlan president Buenaventura Hidalgo picked at the bones of Midland, licked his chops, and asked for seconds. His vast, neo-feudal army descended upon the isolated Carlsbad government and swiftly conquered it, establishing its own Estado de Nuevo México.
New Mexico was once the most Hispanicized state in the union, where Hispanics made up over half the population before the Great War. The war and its related crises reversed these trends, as tens of millions of Hispanics from across the country fled over the border into the warmer, less-irradiated, and less anarchic Mexico1. The unprecedented refugee crisis plunged northern Mexico into a state of anarchy just as bad as its northern neighbor, creating the very climate for Aztlan to emerge without fear of intervention by the Mexican military. Since its rise to power, Aztlan has embarked on an ambitious program of immigration and resettlement. Their goal is to repopulate New Mexico and Texas with hundreds of thousands of “Retornados,” repatriated Mexicans and Hispanic Americans who previously fled from the United States.
The vast majority of the Retornados are single young men, and most are poor. Many of them are soldiers in the Aztlan Army, who fight for the promise of receiving American land to settle on after their service is finished. Others are convicts, hauled in from the south to populate penal colonies, and others still are indentured servants. Aside from the army, most Retornados are either urban poor dwelling in the cities of Texas and New Mexico, or are employed as peons in ranchos: rural developments such as plantations, ranches, mines, oil fields, and cottage industries owned by the Aztlan elite. These elites range from Hispanic warlords, to cooperative government authorities (including non-Hispanic white holdouts from the Midland regime), to wealthy Retornados staking their claim in America’s future.
Aztlan New Mexico is dominated by the rancho system. Most of its Retornados live and work on ranchos, which produce most of the state’s economic output. Aztlan ranchos, especially those in New Mexico, are poorly-regulated and have little incentive to not work their peons for all they are worth, much like forced labor in the neo-feudal states across America. Many are isolated and remote, and are responsible for their own defense. These rancho barons rule as little warlords in their own right and close ranks with other barons to defend their territory from rivals or invaders.
Between the rancho system and the fluid, ever-shifting frontier with the George Washington Legion and Dodge City-aligned Clayton state government, Aztlan New Mexico is a lawless and violent land. There is really only a centralized “State of New Mexico” in Carlsbad itself, making it a de-facto city state. Beyond its confines, the rest of Aztlan New Mexico is a patchwork of petty lords ruling over their own ranchos. Thanks to these qualities, Aztlan New Mexico resembles both medieval Europe and the Wild West of old.
George Washington Legion
Capital: Truth or Consequences
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Far-right insurgent movement)
The George Washington Legion is the terror of the wasteland. Like the Northwest American Republic, the Legion has its roots in various prewar militias and far-right movements. When the state government fled east to Carlsbad, the militias filled the power vacuum in the west, banding together as the New Mexico Citizens Constitutional Militia. When refugees fled from the Indian territory or the Midland-DC war, only the Militia took them in, earning their undying gratitude. Only the Militia, they said, could make the hard choices and fairly distribute food during the Starving Time. The rise of the Confederation of Indigenous Nations in the northwest and the Bandido Nation in the southeast fueled the fire of their extremism. They left the idealism of other right-wing ideological factions far behind them. What emerged, forged from the fires of war, was the George Washington Legion.
Unlike the NAR, the Legion actually had a large population of minorities to target. What began as white favoritism regarding refugees and rations grew into massacres and culminated in the Southwest Genocide: the targeted killings of tens of thousands of Hispanics, Native Americans, and other minorities. The Legion can be described not so much as a state or even an army as it is a militarized society. Everything exists for the Legion and its purifying mission. Everyone lives for the Legion and the Legion alone. Men and women, children and the elderly, all must fight or serve however they can. White refugees that seek haven in Legion strongholds like Lordsburg, Silver City, and Truth or Consequences must be initiated by presenting the severed head of an “anti-American.”
The Legion lacks much in the way of military industry or even an economy in general. Most of their wealth that isn’t acquired by plunder is gained by copper mining and cattle ranching. The Legion originally attempted to mint gold and silver specie, but quickly ran out of precious metals and resorted to copper coinage. Legion coins are issued in many different sizes, as their value is tied to the amount of copper present. The resulting specie can range from antebellum copper dollars2 to “plate coins” weighing as much as forty pounds. Without military production beyond the level of basic cottage industry, the Legion is wanting for modern firearms and ammunition. Much of their fighting is instead done with bows, crossbows, knives, pikes, and machetes. Such weapons are not uncommon throughout the wasteland, but seldom are they a mainstay of major organized powers such as the Legion.
At the top level, the Legion revolves around “the Chief,” their paramount leader who demands an almost religious level of reverence. Below the Chief are his subordinate colonels, who command the Legionary columns as they march throughout the wasteland. A traveller from the Old World would be forgiven for mistaking the Legion for Bedouin desert tribesmen; all that marks them as American anymore are the tattered American flags they carry with them.
United Indian Nations
Capital: Window Rock, Arizona
Classification: Native American Faction (American Indian nationalist state)
The United Indian Nations control the northwest quadrant of New Mexico. Their long frontier with the Legion is a constant battleground, with the fiercest fighting just south of I-40 approaching the remains of Albuquerque.
Bounty Killers
Capital: Moriarty
Classification: Warlord (Vigilante gang)
The Bounty Killers are your typical renegade vigilante posse. Their continued existence is only thanks to the unspecific nature of the shifting Legion-Indian frontier. They aren’t shy of selling their services as fighting men to other powers who are willing to pay. They won’t fight against the Legion, however, whose steady northeastern expansion terrifies them. They even go scalp-hunting on the Legion’s behalf, when paid to do so.
True Vegas
Capital: Las Vegas
Classification: Warlord (Warlord bartertown)
When the city of Las Vegas, New Mexico was captured by a warlord coming in from out west, he facetiously named it “True Vegas” in reference to the destroyed city in Nevada. As far as warlords go, True Vegas is doing pretty well. Their leader has really taken to his new home, and earnestly tries to build it up as a prosperous city in the middle of the wasteland, even if he obviously takes the biggest piece of the pie. Between the Aztlan, Legion, USA-Dodge City, and UIN, however, True Vegas has a lot of angry, powerful neighbors to contend with. At least they get along well with Taos.
Middle Finger
Capital: Española
Classification: Warlord (Raider gang)
The Middle Finger gang overthrew the Hells Angels chapter that previously ruled the city. They are not much different from your other typical warlord regime: stronger than the average petty gang, but at the mercy of larger powers.
Taos Republic
Capital: Taos
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Civilian dictatorship)
The Taos Republic is New Mexico’s most prominent warlord state, and is something like a big brother to True Vegas. It’s pretty well-organized and affluent for such a middling-sized realm, and has survived and thrived by playing the UIN and USA-Dodge City off of each other.
In addition to its status as a trading hub and neutral meeting grounds, Taos is renowned by the underground wasteland rock scene as a hub for “X-Ray” music; a grungy, folk-punk subculture that got their start from garage bands who, lacking CDs, cassette tapes, or vinyl records, recorded their music on fluoroscopic X-ray film. The scene is prevalent throughout the south-central United States, especially in Texas and New Mexico. Taos serves as the Mecca for X-Ray fans, and bands here are renowned for their ruthless, percussion-heavy “Taos sound.” There’s a strong countercultural attitude here which dates all the way back to the mid 20th century. The people of Taos like to think of themselves as the only sane people in New Mexico, free from the racial and political strife of the other powers.
Taos is also unique for its widespread use of the “Earthship,” an unorthodox subterranean house design that’s well-suited to post-nuclear life. It efficiently uses natural solar heating and cooling, collects rainwater, houses gardens, and can be built with cheap local materials. These sustainable, off-the-grid homes already had a small presence in Taos before the war; the Republic’s warlord president abolished the old building codes and mandated the construction of more Earthships to meet the city’s infrastructural needs.
State of New Mexico (Clayton)
Capital: Clayton
Classification: Local Government (Re-founded state government)
Allegiance: United States of America (Dodge City)
Northeastern New Mexico initially belonged to the Carlsbad rump government, prior to the outbreak of the Dodge City-Midland War between rival presidents John Ingersoll and David Brannigan. Clayton had already developed into a nucleus of government authority in the north of the state and was a natural rallying point for anti-Ingersoll dissidents. Clayton originally maintained a neutral stance during the war, as opposed to Kansas, who participated in the original Dodge City Convention, or Oklahoma, who immediately joined it. The arrival of Brannigan’s Guard, an immeasurably vast mob of poorly-equipped conscripts and auxiliary civilians, ensured that Clayton had no other choice than to join Dodge City and speed the mob on their way before they caused any more damage.
Since their induction to the Dodge City Congress, the State of New Mexico has held regular elections both for statewide offices and the state legislature. It additionally elects two senators and two representatives to the U.S. Congress in Dodge City. Its federal congressmen are all Republicans, but some Democrats are present at the state and local levels. In fact, New Mexico has the strongest Democratic presence of all the Dodge City states; it is the only DCC state where elections are competitive at the two-party level. They prize this aspect as proof of a working democracy, while detractors argue that it exhibits all the flaws of the prewar electoral system. On the other hand, Dodge City’s far-right party, the Constitutional Patriots, is especially weak in New Mexico, where the threat of the George Washington Legion is never distant.
Black Mesa Sector
Capital: Kenton, Oklahoma
Classification: Federal Legacy (Government black site)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
From their underground bunkers, the secret facility of Black Mesa Sector spans the tristate area between New Mexico, Colorado, and Oklahoma. The large prewar government facility survived the war unscathed and continues to operate in silence. They do not recognize the Dodge City government and avoid contact with them whenever possible; all attempts by the USA-DC to reclaim the facility have thus failed, and have failed silently and mysteriously. Kenton, Oklahoma is its only surface-level settlement, cordoned off from the rest of the world and shrouded in secrecy. Most of the Sector, however, still operates in the labyrinthine network of underground tunnels and bunkers that spans the tristate area.
Index
Click here to read the master post of the series, with links at the bottom of the page to all other Fallen Continent entries.
Previous Entry: Arizona
Next Entry: Colorado
Mexico was hit by dozens of nuclear missiles during the Great War. Its proximity to the United States meant the possibility of a postwar intervention was too great for the US to ignore; its largest cities and military bases were attacked by the United States during the nuclear exchange. Still, Mexico suffered far less than its northern neighbor and the nuclear winter was far more mild.
Roughly one third of Mexico is controlled by an internationally-recognized military government based in Acapulco, Guererro on the Pacific Coast. It holds a loose sway over another approximate third of the country. The rest of Mexico, mostly concentrated near the northern and southern borders, is controlled by various warlords: the United States of Aztlan, drug cartels, renegade state, local, and military governments, communist Zapatista militias, right-wing Catholic Cristero militias, and petty warlords. The Mexican government does not have diplomatic relations with any American government, nor does it recognize any faction above the others.
Hyperinflation rendered the penny virtually worthless during the Great 21st Century Crisis. One US dollar in 2029 is worth approximately 0.125 cents in real life, 2024 dollars. As such, the lowest denomination of US coinage before the war was the aluminum dollar, followed by the $5 copper-plated zinc coin. See the article on currencies for more information.
What would be a comparable song/genre to X-ray music?
We Aztlans are white hidalgo