The Fallen Continent: North Carolina
America's new gateway to the world, poised to unify the East Coast in one fell swoop.
Population: 550,000
Largest City: Elizabeth City
Tho' she envies not others, their merited glory,
Say whose name stands the foremost, in Liberty's story,
Tho' too true to herself e'er to crouch to oppression,
Who can yield to just rule a more loyal submission?
Introduction
The old Tarheel State may have suffered badly in the Great War, but in many respects she was poised to become one of the most successful of all. She has the greatest population of any state on the east coast, and a disproportionate share of the eastern seaboard’s wealth and industry. It is also a land of stark contrasts. The largely-unmolested west, nestled away in the Appalachian Mountains, is a bulwark of prewar order that has benefitted greatly from its preserved resources. The coastal east includes some of the nation’s largest remaining ports, which serve as a window to the rest of the world. Protected by a ring of barrier islands, these cities are commercial hubs for trade throughout the Atlantic and a major point of entry for the American diaspora that is steadily trickling back to the mother country. The middle of the state, fallout-stricken and plagued by quarrelling warlords, remains a battleground, where the state’s rising titans attempt to project their influence and out-do one another.
The initial nuclear exchange took out the Charlotte metropolitan area, Fayetteville, Goldsboro, a large belt stretching from Raleigh to Winston-Salem, and nearly the entire southern half of the state’s coast. The Secretary of State established a provisional rump government in Greenville, at the edge of the coastal plain, but was slain along with his cabinet when the city was targeted in the first wave of secondary strikes. The remnants of the Greenville government relocated to Rocky Mount, the last undisputed successor of the antebellum state government, and remained there for a year. Although the first wave of secondary strikes was over, the Tarheel State was now embroiled in the most climactic naval struggle to ever succeed the 48-hour slugfest that was the Great War.
The Battle of the Atlantic
While the Secretary of State assumed the Acting Governorship in Greenville, most of the remnants of the United States Fleet Forces Command were rallying in Daytona Beach, Florida. Off the Atlantic coast of Florida, the Navy was locked in mortal combat with the remnants of the Chinese High Seas Fleet, a task force designed to harry the United States with secondary strikes long after the outbreak of any nuclear war. The Chinese were defeated and their last few ships sent scurrying south into safer Caribbean waters, but they took much of the fleet, the city of Daytona Beach, and the Floridian rump government down with them.
Meanwhile in North Carolina, the Marine Corps stragglers who survived the destruction of MCAS Cherry Point rendezvoused with the Coast Guard at Fort Macon on the Crystal Coast. They took in much of the surviving Fleet Forces Command, sheltering them in Morehead City in safety behind the southern Outer Banks barrier islands. In one of the war’s last secondary strikes, the Chinese nuclear submarine Sun Yat-sen ventured into Mid-Atlantic waters on a suicide mission to attack what remained of the American fleet. With its remaining complement of missiles, it destroyed Morehead City and the second North Carolinian rump government in Rocky Mount.
The fleet, which had been widely dispersed across the Outer Banks in anticipation of such an assault, fortunately survived and dispatched the Sun Yat-sen. The State of North Carolina, however, was not as well-prepared. Plunged into the darkest, coldest days of the Starving Time, the Rocky Mount government was already battling hordes of southbound refugees from the Great Wastes and desperately trying to wrangle back control over the various towns, counties, and military units that were fast slipping through their fingers. Although it was one of the better-off eastern states, North Carolina still lacked the advantages of the western states like Kansas and Oregon, who successfully preserved order throughout the Starving Time. Even if no warheads had ever fallen on Rocky Mount, the State of North Carolina was likely to collapse anyway.
At any rate, there was effectively nothing left of the North Carolinian state government after the destruction of Rocky Mount. There was only one immediate attempt to reconstruct it, and this attempt was hotly contested and struggled to project power outside the immediate city where it occurred. Central North Carolina fell apart under the pressure of gangs and warlords, while local authorities at the state’s less-populous edges fought desperately to hold on. They endured in the west, while in the east they grew reliant on the remains of the United States Navy. Thirty years later, the Tarheel State now enjoys a preeminent position on the east coast, and its most dominant faction is poised to unite the east, by hook or by crook.
United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Capital: Elizabeth City
Classification: Military Faction (Reformist military government)
State of North Carolina
Capital: Elizabeth City
Classification: N/A (Devolved civilian administration)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Ruling from Elizabeth City, the crown jewel of its transatlantic empire, is the most powerful faction east of the Mississippi to call itself the United States of America. Born from a unique blend of legacy civilian government and postwar military rule, the Elizabeth City regime controls most of the remaining eastern seaboard and enjoys unrivaled diplomatic support from foreign nations across the sea. To understand the workings of the USA-EC, it would first be necessary to explain how the region came to be ruled by the U.S. Navy, and what existed there to begin with.
The Atlantic Counties Emergency Administration
Eastern North Carolina initially remained under the firm control of the Secretary of State’s rump government in Greenville, which maintained law and order with decent effectiveness—an impressive accomplishment, given the teeming hordes of Virginians that were now seeking refuge in cities like Elizabeth City, Murfreesboro, and Roanoke Rapids. When Greenville fell and the seat of power shifted to Rocky Mount, however, the State of North Carolina found itself increasingly hard-pressed to maintain order. They heavily relied on local governments and surviving military units to keep the peace for them, dwindling in power and influence until they were finally snuffed out by one of the Third World War’s last nuclear strikes.
With the state government rapidly shrinking around them, the northeastern counties of Pasquotank, Perquimas, and Camden banded together into the Atlantic Counties Emergency Administration, an organization that assumed state-like authority over the region in Rocky Mount’s stead. The ACEA maintained power much as any other local emergency government did, by militarizing local and state police, arming friendly militia groups, selectively admitting useful refugees while keeping the masses at bay, and implementing extreme austerity programs to keep people fed throughout the Starving Time.
Among the ACEA’s great boons were the military bases that survived the Great War, Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City and Harvey Point Defense Testing Activity. Aside from some logistic aid, these facilities did not contribute much to the Great War and kept a low enough profile to escape nuclear annihilation. They did contribute greatly to the post-nuclear phase of the war as bases for anti-submarine operations throughout the Mid-Atlantic. These bases were never heavily armed at the best of times, but they possessed supplies and equipment that could be used to reinforce local authorities. What’s more, they possessed invaluable personnel who could train up a new generation of recruits to defend the region from warlords and maintain order.
These bases also harbored much of the ships, personnel, and resources dispersed throughout the region by Fleet Forces Command, allowing them to survive the atomic bombing of Morehead City. This created a dualistic system in the region, where civilian authorities answered to the ACEA and the military answered to Fleet Forces Command. The ACEA was nominally loyal to Rocky Mount, and in turn the federal government, while Fleet Forces Command was nominally loyal to the Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Kahului, Hawaii, and in turn the federal government. In practice, both the ACEA and USFFC were independent organizations.
The Naval Government
The governance of northeastern North Carolina continued in this fashion for some years, with a joint administration by the US Navy and the local emergency governments. It was never outright despotic, but there was certainly no room left for democracy under such pressing circumstances. Still, they got an awful lot of people through the Starving Time intact and successfully quelled the kind of unrest that lost them the rest of the state. Once the threat of secondary strikes had died down, Fleet Forces Command officially moved their headquarters to Elizabeth City and concentrated their fleet there. When they finally made it out on the other side of the seven years’ famine, Elizabeth City was left as the country’s largest surviving port town.
As the dispersed naval forces consolidated themselves, the Fleet Forces Command coalesced under the rule of a single leader: Rear Admiral Kenneth Patrick Kirby, now the second-highest ranking officer in the US Navy. He wasn’t a Rear Admiral before the Great War, but had been promoted to Vice Commander of the USFFC by the previous Vice Commander after the fall of Daytona Beach, when most of the Atlantic fleet was based in Morehead City. Kirby answered to the Kahului government in Hawaii, recognizing the Acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the Acting Commander-in-Chief of the United States. With Kahului’s support, Kirby served as the Hawaiian government’s vicegerent on the east coast. One of the Atlantic fleet’s main duties at this time was to patrol coastal waters, protect boat people coming to and from the country, and maintain contact with what little remained of America’s overseas presence.
This arrangement was broken up when the Hawaiian Spring toppled the Kahului government and withdrew the island power from the contest of American succession. Elizabeth City wasn’t the only faction to pick up Kahului’s mantle, but they were the largest and most serious about it, and were taken the most seriously in turn. Kirby proclaimed himself the Acting Commander-in-Chief and met with the ACEA to establish a new US government. The civilian authorities tarried, then made demands for the Navy to step down and create a fully civilian administration. In response, Kirby’s men stormed the government and dismantled the ACEA by force. It was a mostly bloodless takeover, but one ACEA trooper was killed and half a dozen on both sides were injured during the scuffle. Kirby deported the traitors to Antarctica1 and integrated the rest of the ACEA into a new, much more compliant government.
With Elizabeth City firmly under his grip, Acting Commander Kirby proclaimed the rebirth of the United States of America, and reorganized the ACEA into its faithful State of North Carolina.
Elizabeth City and North Carolina
Although the Elizabeth City government began with a hostile takeover, it endured through compromise and concessions to other voices. The power-sharing agreement between Fleet Forces Command and the ACEA was partially restored through the establishment of a North Carolinian state government. By this arrangement, the federal government remains under a state of perpetual martial law until the National Emergency is ended and peace is restored to the Union; i.e. indefinitely. The executive branch consists of the Acting Commander-in-Chief (a military dictator) and a cabinet of advisors and secretaries (mostly military, some civilian appointments). The Supreme Court, perpetually in recess, has been replaced by a committee of military judges, and federal court cases operate like military tribunals rather than common law trials. The Provisional Congress (another eternal provision) consists of two elected North Carolina senators and thirteen elected North Carolina representatives, drawn from heavily-gerrymandered provisional electoral districts.
The North Carolinian state government still enjoys its autonomy, with regular (though typically non-competitive) elections for congressional seats, statewide offices, the state General Assembly, and most local county and municipal offices. As the Provisional Congress is only an advisory body aiding the military executive council, the North Carolina General Assembly is actually a more potent legislature, even if the military can override some of its rulings. Under this state of “Provisional Democracy,” there are only three legal political affiliations: the Fatherland Party, the Republican-Democrat Party, and the independents.
Elizabeth City’s Political Parties
Owing to its powerful patrons, the Fatherland Party (FLP) is the largest and most influential of the three. The FLP is closely aligned with the military (particularly the Navy and Marine Corps) and the American diaspora community. They champion law and order, continuing the military government, reunifying the country by force, bolstering the seaboard colonies with ambitious resettlement programs, and maintaining close ties with Elizabeth City’s foreign benefactors.
The largest opposition group (and a rather tame opposition, at that), are the centrist Republican-Democrats. The RDs want to further transition back to democratic civilian government, open the seaboard colonies up to the free market, pursue a more diplomatic course for national reunification, and shake off some of the extensive foreign influence that pervades the USA-EC. They are still staunchly in favor of national reunification and aren’t afraid to use military force, but they also see the utility in aligning with factions like the Appalachian Free State to make inroads into the American hinterland. Effectively, the RDs want to trade overseas foreign support for inter-factional American support. While the military overall supports the Fatherlanders, the Army and Air Force have a notable RD bent that’s only grown stronger in recent years.
The only truly dissenting voices allowed in Elizabeth City’s politics are the Independents, who tend to run on single-issue platforms like immigration or currency reform. Most of the independents that matter in the USA-EC are isolationist “America Firsters” who aren’t interested in national reunification and want to sever ties with overseas powers. The main war the independents are currently waging is the eradication of foreign currencies and the promotion of an independent US dollar not tied to foreign markets.
Elizabeth City’s Citizenry
Those participating in this Provisional Democracy come from a very small electorate. Much like the USA-Dodge City or certain quasi-democratic warlord factions, the USA-EC heavily enforced vagrancy laws and established a “Relocated Person” status that applied to the vast majority of the population, only grandfathering in North Carolina locals that could prove their long-term residence in the area and loyalty to the government. Given the liberal leanings of the region prior to the war, the number of people who were both native to the soil and willing to swear an oath of allegiance to an upstart military dictator was low, leading to a miniscule voting population. The Relocated Person status does not expire with time and is inherited by one’s progeny, and can only be removed through ten years of military service. Within the last five years, a new qualifier was added to remove the RP status through participation in government work programs—helping settle the Atlantic seaboard colonies, clean up NEZs, or drain the Great Dismal Swamp north of Elizabeth City. This gives an alternative avenue for citizenship to American diaspora returning to the country; in effect, foreign immigrants (American or not) are coming into the country as indentured servants, just as North Carolina’s’ first white settlers were in the 17th Century.
Elizabeth City and the World
Elizabeth City’s large population and formidable fleet already guaranteed its prominence as the star of the eastern seaboard, but what really cemented its dominance was its global outlook. The Kahului government already had a stranglehold on Pacific diplomacy and inherited much of the old United States’ ties there, leaving its loyal eastern remnant to pick up the slack across the other ocean. Despite the large fleet, Fleet Forces Command initially suffered great difficulties in maintaining diplomatic ties, thanks to the presence of a formidable rival: the United States Government-in-Exile.2
The USGIE—which is better described in detail in its own article—was a quasi-state created among the remnants of America’s diplomatic and economy machinery scattered throughout the South Atlantic. It controlled little in the way of territory, but represented American refugees—the expats, stranded tourists, and boat people—stuck overseas, as well as defunct American corporations like McDonald’s. American researchers in Antarctica and their complement of surviving government forces made up the entity’s nucleus, and joined forces with the isolated, directionless American consulates and embassies when the Afrikaner Volkstaat encouraged them to organize themselves into a formal exile government.
The Boer separatists had their ulterior motives; after winning a bloody race war and securing for themselves a homeland in the Northern Cape region of what was once South Africa, they badly needed to redeem their international image and win some allies. Other patrons followed suit, acting in their own interests. São Paulo, a former Brazilian state and now the most powerful country in the world, wanted an entity through which they could project economic power into North America. The Israeli rump state in the Negev needed a new benefactor to defend them from vengeful Palestinian warlords further north. The British didn’t want to give up on their “special relationship” with their estranged children across the pond and needed a neutral body to interface with. And all of them needed to strengthen their foreign currency reserves and lend stability to their warbling economies (or, for the British, kickstart an entirely new economy from scratch among the ashes).
The Nantucket Quagmire and the USAA
For all the international favor the USGIE enjoyed, they had a hard time translating it into continental influence. Their first foray in American reclamation was the disastrous “Nantucket Quagmire.” After gaining the recognition of a military fiefdom in Nantucket, the USGIE attempted to use the island as a staging ground to retake New England. A paltry expeditionary force was dispatched there, where they spent six miserable months suffering from disease and malnutrition. Most of the army perished without ever having entered into combat. The expedition’s objective was downsized from conquering the New English Outer Lands to merely weakening warlord control through coastal raids, and even in this they failed. When the warlords repulsed the exiles’ amphibious landings, the USGIE withdrew their few remaining troops and made new plans.
The USGIE enjoyed widespread international support, but lacked military might or a solid home base to start from. The naval government in Elizabeth City, meanwhile, had a powerful military, secure cradle region, and strong economic base, but lacked foreign recognition. Sensing an opportunity, the USGIE swallowed its pride and made overtures to Elizabeth City.
They abandoned their claims to national sovereignty (their one-and-only president was getting pretty old by now with no coherent plans relating his succession, so the jig was about up anyway) and recognized Elizabeth City as the rightful United States government. They retained the USGIE governmental structure, however, and reformed it into the United States of America Abroad, the international arm of the American state. The USAA functions almost identically to how they did before, but now they operate on behalf of their domestic benefactors in Elizabeth City, as well as their foreign allies. It functions partly as the USA-EC’s foreign service, and simultaneously as a quasi-sovereign geopolitical entity.3 With a continental base of operations to work with, they now have somewhere to actually direct the foreign aid they receive.
Elizabeth City and the Mid-Atlantic
Having learned their lessons from the Nantucket Quagmire, the USAA raised a new, better-equipped fighting force that trained and fought in tandem with the Tarheel Navy and Marines. Led by the capable Afrikaner-American General Brooks Geldenhuys, the new American exile force—enshrined in legend as the Geldenhuys Expedition—landed in the Mid-Atlantic and swept the region clean of warlords after a tidy three-year campaign. With a solid supply train, adequate military training, and extensive naval support, the Geldenhuys Expedition continued north and avenged the Nantucket Quagmire by conquering the Outer Lands for Elizabeth City. Later campaigns conquered Cape Cod, secured a foothold in Maine, and reestablished contact with the forlorn naval outposts in eastern Florida.
With the entire Mid-Atlantic (the habitable parts of it, anyway) and the New English Outer Lands securely under their control, the Elizabeth City government now has great swathes of depopulated land ready for colonization. With Delmarva’s fertile farmlands, Massachusetts’s bountiful fishing waters, and Maine’s timberlands, there is plenty of promising economic activity awaiting settlers. The Mid-Atlantic territories are functionally islands, thanks to the surrounding fallout, and the Outer Lands are literal islands, adding a level of security that appeals to unsure colonists who are afraid to take a gamble on the mainland.
Old Blood and New Blood
Who are these colonists? Some come from the USA-EC metropole: its North Carolinian core and the southernmost sliver of Virginia to which it is connected. Counted among these settlers are refugees and the sons of refugees who once settled in Elizabeth City territory during the Starving Time, displaced from elsewhere within North Carolina or from other states. A few are honest to goodness local Tarheels, born and bred on the coastal plains without ever accruing the dreaded Relocated Person status. Fewer still are NEZ dwellers from the Great Wastes, modern-day barbarians coming to reap the rewards of civilization. Southron Tarheel planters make up the cream of the human capital crop in the Elizabeth City colonies, but by and large most of the maritime lands’ newcomers are foreign immigrants.
The vast majority of these immigrants are part of the American diaspora, drawn frown the numerous American communities scattered throughout the Atlantic. These are the descendants of American expatriates transplanted in foreign countries before the war, stranded tourists estranged from their homelands, and many more refugees who escaped North America by boat for warmer climates that could still practice agriculture during the nuclear winter. As a generation has passed since the Great War, very few of these American returnees were born in the old country, and hardly any have conscious memories of life in America before the war. Many of them share partial heritage from their host countries in South America and Africa, and have been partially or even entirely assimilated into said countries. Enticed into returning by economic opportunities, political turmoil in the Global South (which is now wealthier and more stable than most of the Global North, but the USA-EC is a rare island of stability and prosperity above the equator), or love of country, adjusting these diaspora returnees back into American life—especially in cities and states that none of their ancestors ever inhabited—is a daunting task. There is growing social tension in the maritime colonies between the prewar locals, the postwar locals, the Southron settlers, the diaspora returnees, and the most alien group of them all: the foreign immigrants.
There are only three regions in America that observe any widespread foreign immigration: Hawaii, with its Pacific Continent immigrants, the American Southwest, with its Hispanic retornados, and the USA-EC. Although they are still outnumbered by American returnees, foreign immigrants are a growing portion of the east coast’s population, and their arrival rates are slated to outpace the returnees in a decade. A plurality of these immigrants come from São Paulo and the Afrikaner Volkstaat, the USA-EC’s main foreign benefactors. Many Israeli Jews—some of whom are descended from Israeli-American dual citizens before the war—are hedging their bets and moving west, in case a resurgent Palestinian tide drives them out of their homeland and into the sea.4
After an initial explosion of West African immigrants was poorly received by racially insensitive locals, the USAA implemented racial quotas to keep unwanted demographics out. In response, many black Africans and darker-skinned Latin Americans have begun faking American heritage to grandfather themselves in as returnees. Calls for even stricter immigration reform now threaten to put the entire USAA diaspora project in jeopardy, and Elizabeth City will soon have to make a more permanent choice regarding the fate of their immigration program.
More fondly received by the white American majority are the European immigrants. Encouraged by the Brazilian-American returnee community and less controversially accepted thanks to their less ambiguous racial makeup, Portuguese immigrants make up a large portion of arrivals to New England, just as they did in the years preceding the Great War. The sorry economic state of Britain and the warlord-ridden chaos of Germany have together established a growing cohort of Anglo-Germanic settlers, who are probably the most well-received immigrant group thanks to their relative cultural and racial similarity. The fastest-growing immigrant population of them all is currently Northern Irish Protestants, as a result of the Republic of Ireland’s ongoing campaign to crush the Ulster separatists.
The Specter of Foreign Influence
The USA-EC’s greatest strength is its global relationship, but it hasn’t come without its costs. Their “big four” global allies—São Paulo, the Volkstaat, Great Britain, and Israel—all demand a pittance for their support. These mostly come in the form of economic concessions: foreign-based companies now operate on American shores and extract resources to import from across the Atlantic. The Elizabeth City government’s U.S. Dollar is backed by reserves of of São Paulo reals and Afrikaner guilders, and the entire eastern seaboard is flush with foreign cash that often supplants the dollar itself.
These were viewed as necessary concessions at first, but now the growing pile of foreign obligations is becoming burdensome to the government and the population. It’s an open secret that the Commander-in-Chief makes most of his decisions at the discretion of two particular cabinet ministers: the Secretary of the Interior (a Navy-held position that is mostly responsible for managing the colonies) and the Secretary of State (who is a middleman for the USAA and the continental liaison for its overseas President). With the first generation of diaspora returnees and immigrants growing out of their indentures and joining the electorate, the power of foreign voices in Elizabeth City seems to only grow stronger. In response, east coast Nativism is rising in popularity, prompting the growth of Republican-Democrat “interiorists” and America-First isolationist Independents.
The full list of countries that recognizes the USA-EC as the rightful American government are as follows:
The Afrikaner Volkstaat
The Republic of Angola
The State of Bermuda
The Republic of Cabo Verde
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kisangani)
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire
The League of the Free Peoples of Entre Rios, Corrientes, and Misiones
The Republic of the Faroe Islands
The State of Israel
The State of Katanga
The United States of Liberia
The Republic of Namibia
The Republic of Portugal (Azores Government)
The Riograndese Republic
The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
The Republic of Suriname
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
American Prestige Projects
There are many big factions in America, but none that think big like the USA-EC. Far from coasting by on their military might, economic prosperity, or foreign connections, the Naval Government seeks to prove its legitimacy through ambitious prestige projects.
The largest of these are the maritime colonies, which are as much symbolic as they are useful, serving as a testament to Elizabeth City’s steady and uninterrupted growth. More extravagant than these are the reclamation projects to extend not just the government’s reach, but the reach of humanity itself. These include more basic works like draining the Great Dismal Swamp or reinforcing the Outer Banks barrier islands against hurricanes, all the way up to NEZ cleanup. Not only have they pushed back at the fringes of the neighboring Exclusion Zones south of the Mason-Dixon Line, but they have landed expeditions to strike at the heart of stubborn black spots on America’s map. Their proudest achievement is the Plymouth Reclamation Zone, a renewed colony on the spot where the Mayflower Pilgrims once settled in Massachusetts. Not only has this expedition settled America’s ancestral cradle, it has recovered the legendary Plymouth Rock itself as a testament to their continuity with the America of old.
The last and furthest-flung Elizabeth City colony is all the way in Antarctica, a colony inherited from the USA’s unofficial prewar presence on the frozen continent and held in trust for them by the USAA. Its benefit to continental Americans is largely symbolic, but it was an important jumping-off point for what would later become the USGIE and then the USAA, and it’s not like there are any other factions that can boast of owning territories on foreign, inhospitable continents.
The most intriguing of the USA-EC’s prestige projects are its inland expeditions to chart the wasteland and make contact with other factions. The most famous was the Washington Expedition, the first and only manned expedition to the District of Columbia since the bombs fell and the scant few survivors evacuated. There was little for the multi-branch task force of servicemen and researchers to do, other than erect a simple stone monument to the fallen and say they had survived a journey to the most irradiated place on earth.
Of only slightly less fascination are the Navy’s ongoing experiments with airships. Elizabeth City is home to the Weeksville Dirigible Hangar, one of the only airship factories in America. Although much of their production was scaled back to conserve resources for more pressing needs, the authorities in Elizabeth City have been employing airships since the Great War. In addition to a smaller fleet of dirigibles—mostly blimps and semi-rigid airships employed for scouting, patrol, rescue, and supply duties—the Navy possesses two titanic zeppelins, the U.S.S. Inhofe and the U.S.S. Geldenhuys, both named after two of the most famous figures of the USGIE. These massive airships are equipped with spacious quarters and offices, a massive cargo hold, research labs, gun turrets, a complement of U.S. Marines to defend the crew on the ground, and six detachable biplane parasite fighters that can be launched from the ship to defend it in the air.
Since their commissioning, the ships of the Inhofe class have travelled far and wide throughout America, projecting power deep into the American hinterland. They have established contacts with remote factions, made allies, secured valuable trade deals, gathered intelligence on potential adversaries, secured rare resources and derelict equipment, and made a lasting impression on Americans wherever they go. These expeditions are extremely expensive, high in risk, and limited in their ability to make economic returns on investment. But what they lack in practicality, they make up for with their enduring cultural image and the soft power they project into remote localities that other big factions could only dream of.
Surf City Naval District
Capital: Surf City
Classification: Military Faction (Elizabeth city naval governate)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Not all of the USA-EC’s North Carolinian territory is contiguous with the capital. The exclave of Surf City is the last habitable city on North Carolina’s fallout-stricken southern coast.
Connected to the rest of the state only by a narrow habitable corridor, Surf City was bound to spend its postwar years as a lonely fishing settlement. The first upset came when a warlord band of Sheriff’s deputies from New Hanover County emerged from the Exclusion Zone around Wilmington and conquered the settlement. After rounding up and subjugating the locals, the deputies established the legitimist Cape Fear Authority. What happened next, nobody could have expected.
Badly damaged in its fight against the Chinese High Seas Fleet, the nuclear submarine U.S.S. Wyoming was unable to make the voyage to Elizabeth City. Instead, it put in at Surf City, hiding in the bay behind Topsail Island. The crew were attacked by the ex-law enforcement band from Wilmington and forced to surrender their vessel to the CFA. With an immobile nuclear submarine in their position, the tiny CFA, ruling over a population of less than 3,000 people, joined the exclusive ranks of nuclear-armed powers, thanks to the submarine’s last remaining warhead.
These petty warlords lorded over the remains of the Cape Fear coast for over a decade, warding off his enemies with the threat of nuclear annihilation. After many years of evading Elizabeth City’s grasp, a special Navy task force finally managed to capture him and disarm the warhead. The Elizabeth City regime restored order to the town and placed it under their close military supervision, establishing the Surf City Naval District. Unlike the rest of EC’s holdings in North Carolina, Surf City has no civilian government. The submarine still remains in the Waters Bay, providing power to the town.
Columbus County
Capital: Whiteville
Classification: Local Government (Expanded county government)
Allegiance: State of North Carolina, United States of America (Elizabeth City)
The third of four Elizabeth City-aligned polities in North Carolina is Columbus County, which controls more territory than it did before the Great War. The county government survived, thanks to skillful disaster management by local authorities and a strong agricultural community. The locally-organized militia successfully fended off attacks by raiders and the tourist-warlord of neighboring Brunswick County. The militia even marched south to the sea and unseated the despotic tourist regime. With no surviving government between Whiteville and the sea, Columbus kept Brunswick County for themselves.
They have since made contact with the Elizabeth City regime and have joined their cause. They are largely disconnected from affairs in the capital and enjoy more autonomy than most of Elizabeth City’s subjects, with only a minimal military presence beyond the local county militia. They do, however, participate in statewide elections and have their own local democratic process. EC has made no demands for them to relinquish Brunswick County, and has gained much by using Columbus as a springboard for expansion into neighboring South Carolina.
Armageddon Authority
Capital: Lumberton
Classification: Religious Faction (Religious militia)
The Armageddon Authority is an anomaly; its exact nature is hard to place. It blends the line between warlord regime, theocracy, and legitimate proto-state. Its dictator is not a preacher or religious figure, and the regime is not exactly a theocracy, but leans heavily upon religion in every aspect of his rule. Being more than just a band of survivalists or religious zealots, the Authority fashions itself as an enclave of faithful Christians who are prepared to survive the End Times of Biblical prophecy.
While the details vary widely within the ranks of the Authority itself, the AA’s official position is that the End Times have not yet occurred, but that the Great War heralded their imminent arrival. Roland Tabor, the Armageddon Authority’s late founder, was not shy in reminding people that his organization was modeled after the Tribulation Force from the Left Behind series of Christian novels from the turn of the millennium. In following this model, Tabor established the Authority so that a pre-existing framework could guide faithful Christians during the Tribulation.5
The Armageddon Authority is the only religious faction in the Carolinas that is not affiliated with the prominent Tishbite movement that is active throughout the region. Some Tishbite believers can be found among their ranks, but the Commander is much more partial to traditional Evangelical denominations. Tishbites are treated with about as much respect as Roman Catholics in the Authority: the last among equals—tolerated, but viewed with suspicion.
The Authority fields a fairly formidable military relative to its size, with well-drilled and organized troops that are a cut above the average warlord. The apparatus of state is rigid, incorporating prewar authorities and cooperative militias and effectively integrating them into a state, rather than simple neo-feudalism. The AA looks small on the map, but like many religious factions, has a wider sphere of influence than its political territory implies, thanks to the presence of believers in other communities. There is a growing presence of AA sympathizers in Columbus County, the State of Sampson, and the Real State of North Carolina.
Despite their impressive organizational skills, solid discipline, and soft power, the Authority still lacks the kind of heavy industry or large manpower pool that could make them a serious contender in inter-factional politics. They are enough of a player to shift the balance of power in the region, depending on who they side with, but their efforts to grow a powerbase in their own right may be too little, too late as larger factions organize around them.
Burley Boys
Capital: Wallace
Classification: Warlord (Local warlord gang)
The Burley Boys are a vicious gang that rules over the town of Wallace, controlling all land traffic between Surf City and the wider world. As their name implies, they specialize in the burley tobacco trade, as well as marijuana. Their boss has a mean temper and they are generally despised as degenerates by neighboring factions. The Boys are remote and irrelevant enough that it will probably be some time before Elizabeth City wipes them out, however.
State of Sampson
Capital: Clinton
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Vigilante state)
The State of Sampson is the product of zealous, optimistic vigilantes and militiamen who have brought order to their home town and wish to assert their authority as free men. Though the state originated under militia rule (they were first led by a prewar police officer), Sampson now holds its own, non-partisan elections.
Sampson doesn’t truly think of itself as the fifty-first state in the Union, like the State of Franklin or State of Forgottonia; neither do they think of themselves as a quasi-independent state like Jefferson or East Kansas, with an undefined relationship to the rest of the USA. Rather, the State of Sampson serves as a vehicle for local self-determination and independence from warlords, and many of the militiamen still feel like they belong in North Carolina. They are willing to negotiate with the Elizabeth City government, and their closest friends are the Armageddon Authority and Brethren Knights of Christ.
King Ricky
Capital: Kinston
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
King Ricky rules the isolated town of Kinston. He’s a run-of-the-mill, one-town warlord, much like the Burley Boys with whom he enjoys a begrudging alliance of convenience. Compared to the Burley Boys, Ricky is more brutish in his rulership, but causes less trouble for neighboring factions.
The twin warlords are currently aligned together against Elizabeth City and the State of Sampson; much of his income comes from smuggling cigarettes and alcohol from the Burley Boys’ territory into the USA-EC. As Elizabeth City makes inroads into the North Carolinian hinterland, it’s become clear that Ricky is living off of borrowed time.
Brethren Knights in Christ
Capital: Smithfield
Classification: Religious Faction (Fundamentalist militant movement)
The Brethren Knights in Christ are the lesser of the two factions on the map belonging to the Tishbite Movement, a postwar development of Charismatic Christianity centered around the teachings Brother Elijah, a mysterious miracle worker whose ministry spread like wildfire throughout the coastal South before his sudden disappearance in the late 2030s. There are many different Tishbite schools and churches that came out of the initial Tishbite schism. The largest is the Evangelical Tishbite Church, which is closely affiliated with the National Salvation Front in South Carolina. The Brethren Knights in Christ are the militant arm of the Tishbite Brethren Church, the second-largest Tishbite affiliation.
The Brethren were founded by Brother John, one of the earliest prominent disciples of Brother Elijah. The Brethren revere Brother Elijah as a true Prophet sent by God and believe that he was martyred by the “antichrist agents” of the Real State of North Carolina. They are much more radical and militant than the Evangelical Tishbites, but are still open to reasonable dialogue. They place a greater emphasis on mysticism, faith healing, and austere cultural conservatism than the more numerous Evangelicals, but stop short of the Tishbite Sisterhood’s ultra-reactionary crusading.
As a geopolitical faction, the Brethren Knights are smaller, more professional, tighter-knit, and more devout than the NSF, which is more like a collection of right-wing Christian militias that happen to have a fundamentalist bent. This puts the Brethren Knights more in line with some of the “Army of God” factions that dot the post-apocalyptic landscape. They are, in many respects, a smaller, slightly worse-off counterpart to the NSF. Their soldiers are determined, but few in number and poorly equipped. They have little hope of conquering the state for themselves, and instead try to prove their worth to the people by fighting bandits, raiders, and smugglers. Like the other religious factions in the region, many of the BKC’s believers and militants are spread out across the surrounding towns and countryside, and Smithfield merely serves as their headquarters.
Their arch-enemies are King Ricky and the Real State of North Carolina, which they view as a godless sham government. Although they religiously disagree with the Armageddon Authority, they are aligned with them and the State of Samson in a loose triumvirate against their common enemies. The Brethren have carefully observed the rise of the USA-EC and are open to joining forces with them. Taking Elizabeth City into account, their long-term goal is to join forces with the naval government as a kind of quasi-military holy order that can freely recruit and proselytize throughout USA-EC lands. As far fetched as the scheme sounds, it’s not inconceivable—the dominant US Navy is wary of the Army’s growing influence as the regime expands inland, and they’re open to empowering friendly militias in order to stay one step ahead of the Army in the growing inter-service rivalry.
Real State of North Carolina
Capital: Pinehurst
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
Allegiance: Congress of Southern States
The insistently-named Real State of North Carolina represents the Tarheel State in the Congress of Southern States. Its origins are the most contentious of any CSS member, as it is effectively a neo-feudalist dictatorship and has made little effort to change.
The Real State’s beginnings lay with the short-lived Greenville government, when Kaitlyn Bates, a prewar lawyer, was appointed Attorney General by the Acting Governor. She was sent to secure government authority over central North Carolina and left abandoned by the destruction of Greenville. While maintaining nominaly fealty to the new Acting Governor and his administration in Rocky Mount, Bates defied Rocky Mount’s dictates and ruled over the city of Pinehurst and its refugee camps as a petty dictator.
After outliving the Rocky Mount government, Bates unilaterally claimed the mantle of North Carolinian state succession for herself. The declaration fell on deaf ears, as the Atlantic authorities were more closely cooperating with the Navy and Appalachian authorities looked up to the City of Asheville as their guide. The rest of the state fell to warlordism or otherwise retreated inward.
Bates wasn’t particularly interested in restoring order to the rest of the state, and used her governorship as a means of ensuring her own safety and provision during the nuclear winter—similar to what occurred with the state governments of South Dakota and Illinois. Any plans she had for expansion or reunification were only considered insomuch as they helped secure her own position—and even these proposals were set aside after the Starving Time culled most of the remaining population. During this period, the Pinehurst government pursued a policy of triage and isolation, securing only the bare minimum for Bates and her closest supporters.
Governor Folsom and the Real State
Bates’ health deteriorated greatly during the Starving Time, so she stepped down at the end of her eleven-year unelected term as Acting Governor and elevated her daughter, Kassandra Folsom, to succeed her. Folsom was the one who added the word “Real” to the regime, in order to distinguish it from the state government in Elizabeth City that had long since eclipsed Pinehurst in size, strength, and recognition. Although she had no real hope of catching up with Elizabeth City, Folsom at least brought the Real State out of its decade-long hibernation, expanding throughout the center of the state as a neo-feudal dictator. She cooperated with bandits and warlords just as often as she did legitimate authorities, developing a reputation as a fearsome despot in her own right.
Emphasizing her ties to the Greenville rump government, Folsom impressed the Congress of Southern States, who were skeptical of the USA-EC and the influence it could potentially wield throughout the coastal South. The Real State gained entry into the Congress, becoming its most recent and northernmost member. Their participation is only out of pragmatism, and they tend to stubbornly dispute most of the Big Two’s proposals for further Congressional centralization and inter-factional coordination. They do, at least, have a friend in the Congress in the form of the Continuity State of Florida, another out-of-place legitimist regime looking for allies in a region filled with hostile neighbors.
With an aging governmental system and lack of goodwill with the public, the Real State is again beginning to stagnate; any hope of dominance over the Tarheel State depends on a CSS triumph further south.
4th Fighter Wing
Capital: Asheboro
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Representing the Elizabeth City government as their westernmost vanguard in the state is the 4th Fighter Wing. Some remnants of the 4th managed to escape the destruction of Goldsboro and relocated further west, gathering a host of National Guardsmen, police officers, and friendly militiamen under their leadership. The motley band managed to preserve order in the town of Asheboro under the iron leadership of their Lieutenant Colonel. The 4th has since remained a beacon of civility (albeit under indefinite martial law) in an otherwise desolate region.
The 4th joined the US Fleet Forces Command in recognition of Kahului until the Hawaiian Spring and maintained their support for Elizabeth City afterward. The recent meteoric rise of the USA-EC and their international connections, combined with the Navy’s growing airship fleet, has greatly elevated Asheboro’s importance as a western outpost for Elizabeth City’s air forces. The US Air Force is frustrated over the government’s blatant naval favoritism, which has culminated in the Inhofe-class Navy airships and their “Lewis & Clark” expeditions across America. While the Navy simply wants to use Asheboro as an airfield and a staging ground for future operations in central North Carolina, the Army and Air Force want to build up the 4th Fighter Wing into the nucleus of a revived American land-air military—complete with their own airship program.
Stanly County Minutemen
Capital: Albemarle
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue militia regime)
The Stanly County Minutemen, first organized during the Starving Time to fend off raiders, have since overtaken the county government as the ruling polity in the region. Compared with the State of Samson, they are much more pragmatic and self-interested and rightly deserve the label of “legitimist warlord.” The Minutemen aren’t horrible—there are much worse places to live in North Carolina than Albermarle—but they lack a very impressive track record when it comes to respecting things like freedom of speech, privacy, property rights, free transit, or the autonomy of neighboring localities. They are the only regime in North Carolina that is, if not favorable, then at least willing to negotiate with the Real State in Pinehurst.
Alien Nation
Capital: Salisbury
Classification: Warlord (Raider gang)
The Alien Nation is an outlaw band originally formed by refugees from Charlotte. Positioned between a multitude of Piedmont exclusion zones, their daily bread is mostly earned by scavenging the ruins of central North Carolina’s many NEZs. The narrow habitable corridor between the irradiated zones affords them extra defensibility against their primary foes, the Stanly County Minutemen.
They’re unlikely to last too much longer, however; growing tensions between the USA-EC and the Real State have led to both sides drawing up plans to capture Salisbury in order to outflank the other and check their westward expansion. This is also the reason why the Real State has started acting so cordially towards Stanly County, as of late.
Boss Doyle
Capital: Wilkesboro
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Hijacked government)
Boss Doyle isn’t the rightful ruler of Wilkes County, but rather an invader who simply stuck around and made the county into his personal fiefdom. He’s a typical corrupt county tyrant, enforcing his rule with a gang of bullies and always siphoning money for his own selfish interests and pet projects. He’s distrustful of all his neighbors and antagonizes them all, but he harbors a particular grudge for the Boone Free State. He and Boone have been locked in a bitter rivalry for years, mired in perpetual low-level warfare.
Boone Free State
Capital: Boone
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Sheriff’s regime)
The Boone Free State is the result of a takeover by the Watauga County Sheriff, a grizzled war veteran-turned-survivalist. His survivalist militia acts as if it’s still the Starving Time, constantly launching raids into neighboring towns and counties to plunder food and supplies for their stockpiles. They aren’t as sadistic as Frank Allenby or as aggressive as America Endures, but they are more of a nuisance for the average North Carolinian than the other two, thanks to all their endless raiding and pillaging.
America Endures
Capital: Hickory
Classification: Warlord (Warlord state)
America Endures is a small, militaristic, and aggressive warlord state that employs American nationalist rhetoric to justify its actions. Their dictator isn’t really political, but one would be forgiven for assuming he was a right-wing extremist. Naturally, they claim dominion over the entirety of the United States. They don’t want to poke the Asheville bear and have opted to leave them be, instead focusing their efforts on the neighboring warlords.
Frank Allenby
Capital: Shelby
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Frank Allenby, based in Shelby, is a particularly nasty piece of work, having earned a reputation as the bogeyman of western North Carolina. He and his loyal gangsters like to stuff the mouths of his enemies with their own severed genitals. Such a vile reputation makes him a prime target for expansionist neighbors, however. Frank and his gang have a long-standing feud with Old Smoke, the much more gentlemanly warlord across the state line.
Times are changing, however, and the recent rise of religious radicalism threatens to overthrow the both of them in favor of the National Salvation Front. Old Smoke has met this threat by trying to appease the local Tishbite population with ostentatious displays of piety; Allenby, on the other hand, has opted for brutal repression and intimidation.
Appalachian Free State
Capital: Asheville
Classification: Local Government (Expanded municipal government)
The rump government’s decision to relocate to Greenville (and then Rocky Mount) was a questionable one. In hindsight, the western city of Asheville would have made for a much more secure capital. Yet factoring in the government’s knowledge and priorities at the time, one can understand their reasoning; the coastal lowlands had access to harbors and fishing, and state authorities needed to cooperate with the US Navy upon whom they had grown so dependent. Moreover, recent natural disasters that occurred during the Great 21st Century Crisis led the authorities to believe that Asheville wouldn’t make for suitable headquarters during any kind of disaster scenario. Postwar developments would prove otherwise.
Appalachian Emergency Council
Although it didn’t serve in the official capacity of any rump capitals, Asheville was home to plenty of important individuals with high-ranking offices. The First Lady of North Carolina was visiting the Governor’s Western Residence on the eve of the Great War, escaping the devastation that claimed her husband’s life. Her presence provided much-needed legitimacy to the ad hoc administration that formed around Asheville, led by the municipal government. Defending the city was Colonel Martin Carruthers of the 130th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, who rallied National Guard, Army Reserve, and State Highway Patrol units to his banner. Carruthers requisitioned the historic Biltmore Estate to serve as his headquarters, sheltering his troops in bunkers and dugouts accessible through the vast mansion’s many secret tunnels and passageways. The Biltmore Estate’s greenhouses and stockpiles of antique farm equipment also contributed to Carruthers’ military-run agricultural program that carried the 130th through the nuclear winter.
The First Lady, 130th M.E. Brigade, State Highway Patrol Troop G, City of Asheville, and neighboring county governments entered the Starving Time with a strong working informal relationship. Not long after the eastern counties around Elizabeth City formed the ACEA, the Asheville polities formalized their relationship by establishing the Appalachian Emergency Council. The Council recruited professionals from the Appalachian University to manage the region throughout the crisis, carefully marshalling what remained of the state’s farmlands and hunting grounds. Although starvation and civil unrest were rampant, the region made it out of the Starving Time in much better condition than the rest of the state—even surpassing Elizabeth City and the ACEA in population (thanks to immigration, the east has since eclipsed the west). While the eastern counties hugged the coast and the center was restricted to a small city-state in Pinehurst, the west never lost control of its countryside.
Appalachian Assertiveness
Already-present dissatisfaction with the state and federal governments prior to the Great War were exacerbated by the increasing helplessness of the state government in Rocky Mount and self-reliance of the state’s western communities. Three years after the fall of Rocky Mount, the Appalachian Emergency Council formally declared its independence as the Appalachian Free State. Like many other divisionist states, they claim to be the 51st State of the Union, although they qualify this differently. The AFS maintains its “Free State” moniker on the grounds of its self-sufficiency and the ambiguity of the US federal government. Until this ambiguity can be settled, the Free State will govern its own affairs as a de facto independent country, while still maintaining nominal loyalty to the United States of America as a concept. Appalachian state flags fly alongside a 51-star U.S. flag (and many old 50-star ones), and the state promotes both a national American and local Appalachian identity.
This attitude is beginning to change, however, as the potential threat posed by the USA-EC looms larger. There are quite a few doves in Asheville who are open to working with Elizabeth City’s moderates, but there are plenty of war hawks who are willing to defy Elizabeth City and fight for Appalachian independence. Some wish to recognize another faction like the USA-State College, and others want to do away with the legal fiction of American allegiance and assert their national sovereignty. Fringe positions held by a few include membership in the Congress of Southern States (and thus making amends with the Real State in Pinehurst) and even proclaiming their own national U.S. government.
Affairs Foreign and Domestic
With the antebellum First Lady already serving as a natural figurehead to lead the AEC, she was a shoo-in for Provisional Governor once the Free State was proclaimed. After years of only nominal leadership, she organized elections in which she ran for governor, won by a landslide, and actually served in a real leading capacity for one term before she stepped down. Succeeding her was Martin Carruthers, by then the Adjutant-General of the Appalachian National Guard. He began Appalachia’s continuing shift away from patriotic localism towards assertive, yet cautious expansionism.
Appalachian politics are characterized by firmly-held local loyalties. These can be to a town, a militia chapter, a political machine, or even a family dynasty. These strong local affiliations can pit towns against each other, and at times the Free State resembles a federation of city-states orbiting around Asheville rather than a real U.S. state. The franchise is explicitly limited to landowners only. This was their answer to the democracy question, allowing them to hold free elections without having to worry about refugees, vagrants, survivalists, or conquered rivals. This keeps Appalachian politics stable even amidst all the inter-city feuds, but it’s also raised worries about creating a new oligarchic class of patriarchal white planters with a monopoly on politics.
With a strong, yet isolated starting position, the Appalachian Free State’s prospects for outward expansion are limited. Although strong enough to suit its needs, the Appalachian military is simple and underpowered relative to its size, and few wars of expansion have ever been fought. Peaceful annexations are much more common, combined with slow brushfire wars against raiders and minor warlords. Things are beginning to change, as larger warlord threats and looming juggernauts like the USA-EC and Congress of Southern States have forced the AFS to shore up its defenses.
The shifting situation in the southeast has also encouraged the hitherto insular AFS to look for new allies. Dissenting towns among the Overmountain Men in Tennessee have reached out to Asheville for aid in overthrowing the militia rule of Loudon. The Confederate States of America in Rome, Georgia make for an excellent partner in Asheville’s quest to prolong the CSS-FAR conflict and prevent a Georgian leviathan from turning north. The Tishbite militants of the NSF are open to collaboration. None of the neighboring warlords of North Carolina make for very good neighbors, but some are certainly better than others, and Asheville has the capability to play them off of each other and choose who will emerge victorious in the region. The Appalachian Free State has serious challenges to overcome in the years ahead, but they won’t be able to say that they didn’t have options.
Dixieland
Capital: South Hill, Virginia
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
The last faction in the region worth mentioning is Dixieland, a fledgling republic of neo-Confederate militiamen based in South Hill, Virginia. About half of Dixieland’s territory extends south of the state line into North Carolina, mostly centered around the town of Henderson. Henderson was previously controlled by a vicious cannibal warlord, before he was toppled by the rightist militiamen from across the border.
Index
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See the United States of America Abroad article for more information on just what went on in the frozen continent.
Not to be confused with the United States of America-in-Exile, the Cuban-based faction that projects power onto mainland Florida.
The closest approximation to the USA-EC and USAA’s relationship in real life would be that between the Republic of Malta and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta—AKA the Knights Hospitaller. The Knights of Malta don’t possess any territory, but are still a sovereign geopolitical entity with observer status in the United Nations.
Some Israeli voices—both those critical of the rump government and those who are just that worried about an Arab offensive—have even proposed the formation of an overseas Israeli government modeled after the USAA and headquartered in Elizabeth City.
Tabor was a posttribulational premillennialist; that is, he believed that the Rapture will immediately precede the Second Coming of Christ at the end of the Tribulation, as opposed to the more popular belief that the Rapture will occur before or during the Tribulation. In this respect, he disagreed with Left Behind’s pretribulational model.
I love the Elizabeth City faction.
This was really great / funny as someone that has to drive all over NC for work. All of this little towns you mentioned having their own factions was epic