The Fallen Continent: Oklahoma
The Fallen Continent: Oklahoma
The curious fate of the Sooner State, one of the oddest in the country.
Population: 540,000
Largest City: New Tulsa
Oklahoma, Oklahoma, Fairest daughter of the West,
Oklahoma, Oklahoma, 'Tis the land I love the best.
We have often sung her praises, but we have not told the half,
So I give you "Ok-la-ho-ma," 'Tis a toast we all can quaff.
Introduction
Oklahoma is one of the oddest states in the wasteland.1 Most of its population lived in just two cities, Oklahoma City and Tulsa, but a surprisingly successful missile defense and the failure of many of the warheads to detonate left Tulsa as one of the most intact cities targeted during the Great War. It has a relatively large population considering what it’s been through and hosts a plethora of bizarre factions. It also reflects a trend that becomes more common across the American South: few large factions, and many small and medium-sized factions.
Neo-Nomadism
Another important concept to describe when observing Oklahoma and Texas is neo-nomadism. It functions similarly to neo-feudalism, but on a more basic level. Neo-nomadic regimes revolve around a roving army that travels from town to town, collecting tribute, rather than a core, stationary fiefdom that serves as a neo-feudal ruler’s personal demesne from which he rules lesser vassals. These towns may be ruled by petty local strongmen as in neo-feudalism, or they might be ruled by the top warlord’s lieutenants, appointed by the boss to run the town and keep the tribute flowing.
The main difference between neo-feudalism and neo-nomadism is that the nomadic warlord never stops moving, or at least doesn’t stay in one place for very long. They are also different from truly nomadic warlords like those found in the Badlands, where gangs and warlords show up in a town, plunder it, and leave. Neo-nomadic warlords keep towns within their sphere of influence, an area that can be roughly approximated on a map, and make return visits for more tribute. Neo-nomadic armies are highly mobile and are usually almost entirely motorized, making this system only viable in regions with flat terrain and ready access to fuel. Oklahoma and Texas, therefore, are perfect locations for this system to thrive.
Because of their simplicity, neo-nomadic factions can grow quite large. Some prominent factions began as neo-nomadic armies, like the Kingdom of God in America, the State of Jefferson, and the Kingdom of the Ozarks. Outside of Texas and Oklahoma, however, neo-nomadic factions had to adapt, settle down, and reform, or die. Within these two states, however, the terrain and resources permit neo-nomadic rulers to keep on moving, and can even afford to survive in a few situations where a sedentary faction wouldn’t. USA-Dodge City cannot crush the Road Warriors, for instance, because of their ability to ride off and melt away into the countryside and appear at the US Army’s rear.
Black Mesa Sector
Capital: Kenton
Classification: Federal Legacy (Government black site)
Allegiance: United States of America (Elizabeth City)
Along with the State College Sector in Pennsylvania, Black Mesa Sector is the largest and most valuable “Black Site” to survive the Great War. Such sites are secret subterranean bases where research can be conducted without the public’s knowledge. Black Mesa was kept so well-hidden that it was spared the wrath of atomic destruction, unlike other, better-known government facilities such as the Cheyenne Mountain Complex in Colorado. Most of their population lives and works underground, but they have secured and sectioned off the town of Kenton as their main surface base. They are the only faction in the United States that exclusively uses antebellum high technology, supplemented with some new experimental technologies of their own.
They have an isolationist outlook and prefer to continue their experiments in peace, keeping themselves hidden and occasionally making forays into the wasteland to recover lost government technology. After several failed attempts by Dodge City to secure the site, the USA-DC has learned to leave them alone. Black Mesa dogmatically recognizes the United States naval junta in distant Elizabeth City, North Carolina as the rightful US government. This is likely because of a suspicion of Dodge City and the desire to be left alone by a government that is too remote to order them around.
State of Oklahoma
Capital: Guymon
Classification: State Legacy (State government)
Allegiance: United States of America (Dodge City)
Oklahoma enjoyed two major boons during the Great War. First, like Kansas, the Oklahoma state legislature was not in session on the eve of the War, which ensured the survival of half of its members. Additionally, a successful missile defense bought Tulsa one critical week to evacuate before it was destroyed in a followup strike. The state Attorney General took over as Acting Governor and established a new government in Edmond, just north of the irradiated ruins of Oklahoma City.
Immediately the Edmond Government dispersed the National Guard throughout central Oklahoma and mostly abandoned the south and east of the state. Their chief centers of authority revolved around Shawnee and the college towns of Norman and Stillwater. Edmond tackled the Sisyphean task of handling refugees throughout the state; Tulsa and Oklahoma City were too large too destroy with a single missile and sent over one million refugees in all directions. By the time the Nuclear Winter set in, the refugee crisis had substantially eroded government control over most of the state. Already faced with the threat of refugee uprisings, the nervous Edmond Government was also increasingly concerned about the threat of secondary strikes. As a contingency, they sent a handful of legislators and officials to Guymon, in the desolate Oklahoma Panhandle, as a refuge of last resort.
That last resort became the new home of the State of Oklahoma following the destruction of Edmond, which outlived Twin Falls, Idaho by two months. By this point, the Starving Time was in full effect, and the rump government had no desire to reassert control over the populous center of the state, which would require them to feed and house millions of displaced Oklahomans and Texans. They instead chose to sit out the Nuclear Winter like South Dakota in Winner and Illinois in Quincy, electing a Speaker of the House to be sworn in as the Acting Governor. They consolidated their position in Oklahoma’s four westernmost counties, but could not make contact with Black Mesa Sector, who refused to emerge from their bunkers.
The Guymon government, which scarcely had the ability to produce its own food, became increasingly reliant on Amarillo and Dodge City for federally-mandated aid. After the fall of Amarillo, President Ingersoll refused to provide any more to the freeloading Oklahomans and left them out to dry. Soon afterward, Ingersoll fled to Midland, leaving David Brannigan to seize power in Dodge City. Millions of Brannigan’s hungry, ill-disciplined guardsmen crossed the state lines and occupied the Oklahoma Panhandle, leaving Guymon at the mercy of the Kansas government.
Faced with the prospect of permanent military occupation, Guymon instead sought to get on Dodge City’s good side. Following the 1st Dodge City Congress, Oklahoma and Nebraska participated in the 2nd Dodge City Congress, agreeing to join the Dodge City Convention, which represented all participating states of the United States of America (Dodge City). The Guymon government regained civilian control over its territory once more as the war shifted southward, significantly relieving pressure on the state. As the USA-DC’s aims increased in scope, Oklahoma steadily pushed eastwards, capturing Woodward from the Road Warriors and making contact with remote Kingfisher County.
Today, Oklahoma is, alongside Texas, one of the DCC’s most tumultuous states. Their eastern frontier is in constant flux, ebbing and flowing with the strength of the Road Warriors. Their hold on Woodward is tenuous, thanks to the constant harassment of the Woodward Warriors, a Road Warriors cadet gang that continues to wage a campaign of terror on the state authorities. The desert landscape and sporadic frontier violence provide Oklahoma with the lowest standard of living out of any DCC state, though life here is still preferable to life under the Road Warriors by far.
Politically, Oklahoma is dominated by the Republican Party, but the Hispanic community provides a not insignificant Democratic presence in the state. The Constitutional Patriot Party is comparatively weak here. Lastly, due to the extremely sparse prewar population of the state (the Panhandle’s population more than tripled during the Starving Time, even after counting all the deaths), the vast majority of DCC Oklahoma’s population are “relocated persons” bereft of political rights, the highest of any state.
Kingfisher County
Capital: Kingfisher
Classification: Local Government (County emergency government)
Allegiance: State of Oklahoma, United States of America (Dodge City)
Kingfisher County is a small, single-county regime that walks a fine line between emergency county government and legitimist warlord. The authoritarian Sheriff reluctantly holds pro forma elections, and that only at the request of Guymon, upon whom he relies heavily for his regime’s continued existence. Both of Kingfisher’s principal settlements, Kingfisher and Hennessey, suffer frequent raids by the Road Warriors, leaving the county in a state of perpetual war. One strong thrust by the Warriors might be all it takes to wipe out the hard-pressed county.
Road Warriors
Capital: Elk City
Classification: Warlord (Neo-nomadic confederation)
The Road Warriors are the principal neo-nomadic power in the country; they were one of the very first to appear and are now one of the last. They are a confederation of six powerful gangs: the Boss Hog Gang, Dennis the Destroyer’s Gang, the Damsels of Distress, the White Huns, the Hobart Hoods, and Los Conquistadores de Coronado. They can’t be strictly said to have one capital, but Boss Hog, the leader of the most preeminent gang and de facto leader of the Road Warriors, likes to winter in his home base at Elk City. The semi-independent city of Duncan, led by a RW-affiliated Promethean Energy administration, serves as the economic heart of the faction.
Boss Hog, born Arnold Topp, got his start there as the head of the Beckham County Rationing Board, appointed by the County Board to handle the flood of refugees from Oklahoma City that were dispersing themselves throughout western Oklahoma. When Topp was caught abusing his powers for favors and hoarding food for himself and his friends, the Board called for his quiet resignation. Instead of complying with their demands, he rounded up a posse of loyal supporters and attacked the North Fork Correctional Facility in Sayre, which had previously been re-opened on the orders of the Edmond government to hold refugee prisoners. He busted the overcrowded prison and immediately raised an army of a thousand hungry convicts, which he used to conquer Beckham County and a large swathe of the state.
Boss Hog’s own gang, with their signature patches of a Stahlhelm-wearing cartoon pig, are the primary force of the Road Warriors and do most of the heavy fighting and plundering. The other constituent gangs of the Road Warriors have their own unique identities and specialties. In addition to the six principal gangs, the Road Warriors are also affiliated with the Woodward Warriors, a cadet gang that operates underground in Dodge City territory, and the Promethean Energy-led City of Duncan, a vassal state that provides a substantial tribute in men and funds to Boss Hog. Besides the Big Six and the Woodward Warriors, there are a handful of small, ephemeral gangs of only a dozen or so men that are affiliated with the Road Warriors and placed under the suzerainty of the Big Six.
The Hobart Hoods are the most sedentary of the Six; they’re former vigilantes who took over the town and still wear their characteristic executioner’s hoods. They’re renowned counterfeiters, who print sheet after sheet of phony Dodge City dollars, prewar dollars, and Okie Cards from their presses in Hobart.
The Damsels of Distress are an all-female gang led by Sheila Verbitsky, the “Wicked Witch of the West,” and are the largest female gang in the country. They specialize chiefly in human trafficking, both for labor and for sex.
The Conquistadores are a Hispanic gang led by the eccentric “Grand Inquisitor,” Don Tarrega. Their organization resembles that of the Bandido Clubs of southwest Texas, who gave rise to sprawling the United States of Aztlan. The Conquistadores are also prominent smugglers, especially in Mexican beer. They are the third most powerful gang in the confederation, and frequently jockey with Dennis the Destroyer’s gang for second place.
The White Huns, led by the vicious “Tamerlane,” are an Asiatic-themed biker gang who are chiefly involved in the drug trade. They both produce and import hard drugs, mostly methamphetamine, which they sell domestically and abroad. They have a de facto state monopoly on the drug trade, insofar as there is a state in RW territory. One drug they ignore is cannabis, whose cultivation in the region is so widespread that its regulation cannot be feasibly enforced.
Lastly is Dennis the Destroyer’s gang, led by a young and highly capable warlord. A brutal, dispassionate, yet idealistic man, he’s a newcomer on the warlord scene and briefly fought against Boss Hog before joining forces with him against the National Guard. He serves as Boss Hog’s chief lieutenant and commands the second largest military force. Dennis has lofty ambitions of succeeding Topp as the leader of the Road Warriors and carving out an empire of his own. He holds lofty ideas of being the last truly free man in America, commanding an iron legion of stern, disciplined warriors. Dennis greatly laments the increasingly settled and civilized state of America and longs for the old days of the Starving Time, when he was a lowly child soldier.
Living standards in dusty western Oklahoma are notoriously poor—the lowest in the state. Serfdom is commonplace; public utilities are not. Subjugated towns are squeezed for all they’re worth, with little regard held for their well-being. Gang-sponsored workshops churn out crude equipment to fuel the RW war machine. Cottage industry here is more developed than in most other warlord states, and the Road Warriors have one of the largest fleets of technicals in the country.
Truth be told, the Warriors are not altogether free agents, but are increasingly dependent on the United States of Aztlan, with whom they share a land border and important trade connections. Much of their equipment and funding now comes from Aztlan, which has tasked them with conquering the rest of Oklahoma with the aim of making it an Aztlan client state and source of oil and natural gas. Armed with Aztlan weapons, the Road Warriors are preparing for a knockout strike against the stagnating National Guard.
137th Special Operations Wing
Capital: Frederick
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
The 137th Special Operations Wing is the last holdout of civilized authority in southwestern Oklahoma. Threatened by the neighboring Road Warriors, they doggedly defend the small town of Frederick with their ragged air fleet. They are the remnants of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, who landed at the Frederick air field when other Air Force bases were destroyed during the Great War. Their Great-War era planes mostly consist of Beechcraft MC-12 Hurons, intelligence and reconnaissance craft. Such functions are now the primary role of military aviation in a world bereft of the infrastructure to produce and maintain large air forces. As such, most air forces resemble those of the First World War: primarily used for reconnaissance, with limited ground attack or interception capabilities.
The Hurons prove very useful for such a purpose, far surpassing what most factions are capable of fielding. Some still have been refitted with weapons systems as makeshift attack planes, bombers, and heavy fighters, though the 137th lacks the resources to keep their entire fleet in the air at any given time. They additionally have a larger complement of repurposed civilian craft, all of which are propeller-driven.
Their relationship with the Oklahoma Emergency Military Government is complicated. As the OKC-based 137th frantically escaped to Frederick, the 138th Fighter Wing had a few days to evacuate Tulsa and formed the backbone of the OEMG’s Air National Guard force. Although both Frederick and Shawnee rejected the authority of Guymon, Frederick opted not to follow Shawnee and instead recognized the Midland government until it seemed like Dodge City had the upper hand. They then withdrew their recognition and closed themselves off from the rest of the state. Instead, the 137th cooperated closely with the Texas Rangers across the Red River.
The increasingly aggressive posturing of the Road Warriors and Aztlan has the 137th worried. Things don’t look good for the OEMG either, and Frederick suspects they’re next on the chopping block. If things get bad enough, the airmen are prepared to pack up their things and fly away, defecting to whichever faction they prefer. For some, it’s Dodge City. Others want to make a run for Nacogdoches or even take a stand with the OEMG. Though most, when asked, currently prefer the Evangelicals in New Tulsa.
Caddo County
Capital: Anadarko
Classification: Religious Faction (Cult-controlled local government)
Caddo County is theoretically another prewar county government, cast adrift from any larger authority. Uniquely, Caddo has large Kiowa and Caddo Indian communities, who together make up a quarter of the county's population. Use of the Kiowa language, or at least select words and phrases, is quite common throughout the county.
Underneath its unassuming exterior, Caddo harbors a darker secret. Foreign powers, like the USA-DC or OEMG, always experience great difficulty in communicating with Anadarko, much less getting them to comply with any policy or strategy. The few attempts other powers make to send troops or messengers always end with the expedition’s mysterious disappearance.
In fact, Caddo County is controlled by the Ascended Ancient Teachings Society, a new religious movement founded by a Starving Time-era mystic. His highly syncretic movement combines elements of western esotericism and Native American religion. Central to the AATS’s philosophy is the belief that the ancient Caddo mound-builders belonged to an advanced subterranean civilization and partook of some primordial, perennial truth. The Society is led by their prophet, the Ascended Master and Teacher, who has stuffed the puppet county and city governments with Society members.
The Master’s followers, colloquially referred to as the Caddo Cultists by those who know them, include both whites and Indians (both Kiowa and Caddo) in roughly equal proportions. The Cultists are active throughout the state in small numbers, especially Road Warriors and Texoma territory where they try to recruit new members. They are one of the primary forces of human trafficking in the state, frequently kidnapping outsiders to use as slaves, acolytes, or even human sacrifices. They have strong ties with the Road Warriors, to whom they sell many of their trafficking victims.
Promethean Energy (Duncan)
Capital: Duncan
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Promethean Energy regime)
Allegiance: Road Warriors
Stephens County is the crown jewel of the Road Warriors’ empire. Its county seat, Duncan, was first put on the map by the Halliburton Company, a titan of the oil industry that was eventually nationalized and forcibly incorporated into Promethean Energy, a federally-chartered corporation meant to secure strategic energy resources for the federal government. Most Promethean Energy towns naturally looked to the company for leadership in the absence of civilian leadership. Duncan, by contrast, was violently overthrown by the Chief of the Security Forces, who killed the site manager and forced the Board of County Commissioners to submit to his rule.
Unlike other PE factions, which simply wished to persist as company towns and potentially profit off of the oil trade, PE–Duncan under the rule of Chief Averill was an actively expansionist statelet with ambitions of conquering the entire state. They had nearly crushed the infant Texoma Free State in Ardmore when the Road Warriors arrived.
The Security Forces, though well-armed, were defeated in a near-run battle against Boss Hog’s more sizable, motivated force. The Prometheans likely would have won, had Wes Averill not perished on the field of battle. The panicked Prometheans retreated to their city entrenchments; rather than face a lengthy siege they were not likely to win, the new Chief agreed to submit to Boss Hog’s rule as a neo-feudal vassal state.
Duncan is, however, unlike other Road Warriors vassals. They maintain their own defense force, their own laws, and maintain the legal fiction of de jure independence. They do still enjoy significant autonomy, largely thanks to the Lawton Exclusion Zone which puts valuable space between them and the RW’s core territory. Duncan is also larger than any city under direct RW control, having nearly doubled in size since the Great War due to the arrival of refugees from Oklahoma City, Lawton, and Wichita Falls. This provides them with a substantial tax and manpower base that the RWs can draw from. Most important are Duncan’s oil and manufacturing facilities, which provide the Warriors with much-needed infrastructure to fuel their war machine.
Texoma Free State
Capital: Ardmore
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
The Texoma Free State is Oklahoma’s principal neo-feudal power. It was previously a neo-nomadic state before making the transition to sedentary rule somewhat recently. Due to its importance as one of Oklahoma’s largest remaining oil-refining centers, Promethean Energy naturally had a role to play in the dictatorship’s formation. Rather than overthrow the government outright, they backed the lawyer and upstart strongman Jason Murdock in exchange for business concessions.
As self-proclaimed Governor of the Texoma Free State, Murdock utilized the PE Security Forces as the nucleus of a highly mobile army and carved out a sizable chunk of southern Oklahoma and even northern Texas. He subjugated the dictatorial mayor of Durant and the self-proclaimed Republic of Texas in Gainesville. In a fashion similar to the Road Warriors, he used his main force to collect tribute, marching from town to town, while dispatching smaller raiding parties led by loyal lieutenants to harry his opponents.
At the height of his rule, Murdock came close to overrunning the OEMG. Though he remains a thorn in Shawnee’s side, Murdock’s once-volatile northern frontier has simmered down significantly. The Road Warriors have fast eclipsed Texoma in both strength and ferocity and now pose a much greater threat to the OEMG than the Free State further south.
Despite its waning power, Texoma is still not to be trifled with. It still possesses a sizable, highly mobile army and significant energy resources. Murdock remains a capable statesman, having successfully reined in the Promethean Energy executives who once controlled him as their puppetmaster. His health is failing him, but he hopes that his young son—educated in Stillwater at no small expense to the Texoma treasury—will be able to take up the reins of leadership after he’s gone.
The Texoma Free State also hosts a subordinate Choctaw Nation in Durant, which decries the Ozark’s own Choctaw Nation as illegitimate.
Oklahoma Emergency Military Government
Capital: Shawnee
Classification: Military Faction (Emergency military government)
Much of the Oklahoma Army National Guard was already fighting in Europe or was on its way over when the Great War occurred. Military installations in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Lawton, and McAlester were all destroyed, leaving the remaining National Guard units to pick up the pieces. Surviving elements of the 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team included its Headquarters in Norman, the 179th Infantry Regiment in Stillwater, the 279th Infantry Regiment in Sand Springs. The 90th Troop Command, being heavily concentrated in Oklahoma City, fared more poorly than the 45th, though trace elements dispersed throughout the geographically-large Oklahoma City survived, including the entire 63rd WMD Civil Support Team. The 90th Troop Command’s 120th Engineer Battalion in Broken Bow remained unscathed, as well.
Brigadier General Joseph Freiherr of the 45th BGT immediately assumed control over the National Guard as the new Adjutant-General. Working with the reconvened state government in Edmond, he moved his headquarters to centrally-located Shawnee. Under his leadership, the National Guard withdrew from the far corners of the state and established a zone of control in central Oklahoma. Under Edmond’s guidance, the National Guard fought desperately to maintain order throughout the region, which was overrun by millions of refugees.
When Edmond was destroyed in a secondary strike, the rump government reconvened in Guymon. Guymon had little interest in trying to reassert its authority over Shawnee, which was reaching a breaking point. In the absence of any higher authority, Freiherr established the Oklahoma Emergency Military Government. The OEMG held on to central Oklahoma, pacifying the unrest and surviving the Starving Time intact. All this they managed to accomplish without the aid of any higher party, although there was talk of recognizing Kahului and then the USA-Nacogdoches after the Hawaiian Spring.
The OEMG is one of the more militaristic of the military factions. Some National Guard regimes employ some kind of civilian advisory council or defer to locally-elected leadership, but the OEMG always prioritized military primacy. Civilian offices were consistently relegated to symbolic roles, or sometimes dispensed with altogether. This came with some advantages, but deprived the regime of legitimacy, governmental experience, and popular support during a critical period. Such a move prevented them from expanding past central Oklahoma, but they at least did not mess things up as badly as the Military Government of Arkansas further east.
Central Oklahoma is notably home to one of the most unique forms of currency in the continent: Okie Cards. After running out of money to pay his troops in the coldest days of the Starving Time, Freiherr looked for creative ways to stave off mutiny. He collected hundreds of packs of playing cards, marked denominations on them, and signed his name on them before passing them out to his men as provisional currency. The scheme worked against all odds, and Okie Cards remain one of the most successful fiat currencies of the post-nuclear age. They have widely disseminated throughout the state into other factions where they are used as a transaction-enhancer alongside other outsider currencies, like prewar dollars.
Despite their impressive accomplishments given the circumstances, the cracks in the OEMG are beginning to show. Aging, backward-minded leadership and a lack of initiative in younger officers plagues Shawnee’s leadership. Popular support remains perpetually low, while the government remains apathetic towards solving the issue. Most emblematic of the OEMG’s stagnation and decline is the abandonment and decay of the University of Oklahoma in Norman, which was once the object of Guymon’s envy. Its proximity to the Moore Exclusion Zone already discouraged students from enrolling, but the military has shown a startling lack of interest in repairing or relocating the campus.
If the current Adjutant-General Ernest Kellogg doesn’t take drastic actions to confront the OEMG’s crippling lethargy, the increasingly aggressive Road Warriors may be able to tip the regime past the breaking point into total collapse.
Cowboy Country
Capital: Stillwater
Classification: Local Government (County alliance)
Cowboy Country, officially deemed the Payne and Noble County Alliance, is exactly what its name describes: a coalition of two surviving county governments in Stillwater and Perry, respectively. Though it had its share of refugees both from Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Stillwater never experienced the upheaval that plunged the west into warlordism and the east into military rule. It received extensive support from the Oklahoma State University, whose agricultural school helped ensure a bountiful harvest once the Nuclear Winter was over.
With a higher survival rate than most other cities and more developed institutions, Payne County maintained its democratic form of government, alongside their reliant neighbors in Noble County. Both counties were a major component of the short-lived Edmond Government’s plans for the state’s future, but were left on their own when the state legislature reconvened in Guthrie. When the OEMG made it clear they held civilian authorities in low regard and had no intentions of working alongside them, Payne and Noble banded together to preserve their independence.
Much of the Cowboy Country’s infrastructure revolves around the university, and participation in secret societies derived from prewar fraternities is ubiquitous. Their insular nature ostracizes outsiders, however, and has left them diplomatically isolated—a bad position, given the increasingly aggressive posturing of the Road Warriors.
Though alone, the Cowboy Country is not undefended. The Sheriff of Payne County has been elevated to an executive position, something like the Country’s president and commander-in-chief. He commands a drastically enlarged Sheriff’s Department whose ranks technically contain the entire male population of Payne County. In times of war, that population is summoned by the “hue and cry” to form a posse and take up arms under the leadership of his professional deputies. Noble County maintains a similar arrangement, with their Sheriff functioning as the Cowboy Country’s vice president. Aside from this peculiarity, the County Alliance has all the little foibles and quirks of other county governments. Nepotistic appointments, pork barrel projects, selectively-enforced rationing policies, the works.
Kingdom of Cushing
Capital: Cushing
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Promethean Energy regime)
The Kingdom of Cushing is the youngest faction to appear in Oklahoma. Like Ardmore, Duncan, and Bartlesville, Cushing was an oil town where Promethean Energy was the strongest remaining institution. In addition to its vital oil pipeline crossroads, the city also possessed a recently-constructed refinery, powered by next-generation technology with a net zero carbon output. The prolonged destruction of Tulsa gave Paul Fujimoto, the Regional Manager of PE’s Oklahoma district, the time to evacuate and take control of the city. Fujimoto was the only such manager to survive the Great War and even answered to the Edmond Government and later Guymon. By the time the Dodge City-Midland War began, he was running Cushing as his private fiefdom and sold energy and petroleum byproducts across the state to the highest bidder.
By the time of Fujimoto’s death, a rift had grown among the rank-and-file troops that defended the city. The Promethean Energy Security “Old Guard”—most of whom were veterans of the US interventions in the Middle East—were fearful of the “New Guard” mercenaries that Fujimoto hired after the war to swell the ranks. They were right to be afraid when the New Guard mercenary Edmund Ball assassinated Fujimoto’s son and heir and seized control of the city.
Six months later, he was overthrown by the Old Guard Security Chief Patrick Muncie. He ruled for only two years before passing away from radiation-induced leukemia, leaving behind an adolescent son who was studying petroleum engineering in Stillwater. He stipulated in his will that a five-man council made up of members of both the Old and New Guard factions should govern until his son Jack returned from college to take up the mantle of government. Instead, the security council turned on itself and fighting broke out in the streets of Cushing.
The man who came out on top was Leonard Fairfax, the council’s youngest member and a popular New Guardist. After putting a stop to the killings and subduing the Old Guard, he crowned himself King of Cushing and established a new autocratic system to overrule the chaotic mercenary government. He continues to rule as a popular and beloved monarch, doling out oil to his buyers and tightening his perimeter as the Road Warriors advance eastward. The rise of the Kingdom of the Ozarks has caught his eye, and he is open to cooperation between the two monarchies.
Ponca City
Capital: Ponca City
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Legitimist bartertown)
Ponca City is another Oklahoman oil town that has been able to maintain its independence. Like other energy towns, Promethean Energy has an influential presence, but it was never strong enough here to totally overpower the local government. Instead, they function as a powerful local institution in a typical wasteland bartertown. For the average person, it’s a crossroads, a morally ambiguous trading center where people can buy and sell things or stop and rest a while on the way to someplace else. For the other factions in the region, Ponca City is a neutral meeting place for officials to discuss ceasefires and other diplomatic agreements.
Ponca’s neutral reputation also allows it to harbor outsiders who don’t fit in anywhere else in the state. Jayhawkers from East Kansas frequently meet here to fence looted goods or plan raids. The city also harbors Oklahoma’s largest population of Neo-Satanists, much to the chagrin of its neighbors.
Osage Nation
Capital: Pawhuska
Classification: Native American Faction (Legitimist Indian warlord)
The Osage Nation has managed to pull through the hardships of the wasteland, despite initially suffering a crippling refugee crisis and a prolonged debate on blood quantum laws for citizenship. Prior to the war, tribal membership was determined by descent from the Osage rolls of the Osage Allotment Act of 1906; blood quantum was not required. The influx of white refugees from Tulsa, however, drudged the issue up once again.
With the Osage Nation Congress locked in debate, the issue was settled by force. Timothy Bigeagle, a distant cousin of the Red Eagle family with, as he declared, “full-blooded Osage heritage,” formed an influential clique within the Osage Nation Police Department as a deputized member. Although he himself was a refugee from Tulsa, he became the most outspoken voice for Osage racialism, advocating for blood quantum requirements and the expulsion of white refugees.
When the Principal Chief called for Bigeagle’s arrest for disturbing the peace with his inflammatory rhetoric, Bigeagle’s clique rebelled and defeated the ONPD loyalists. Bigeagle installed himself as the new Principal Chief and immediately instated his racial policies, expelling white refugees and implementing a 25% blood quantum requirement. He also formally dissolved Osage County, which had been relegated to a mere formality since the fall of the Edmond government. Bigeagle strongly considered both seceding from the United States and adopting his own Roman Catholicism as the state religion, but chose to maintain a stance of unofficial independence and unofficial state support for the Church.
With the refugees dealt with, the next crisis concerned the Washington Security Bloc, an expansionist, oligarchic warlord regime based in Bartlesville, led by Washington County officials and Promethean Energy management. The Osage, who had fought long and hard for petroleum headrights in their territory, had lost it all in the 2020s, when all territory leased by the Osage Mineral Council was given to Promethean Energy.
After successfully resisting an invasion by the WSB, they hoped to mount a counteroffensive and retake lost territory. Instead, Bartlesville was captured by the Evangelical American Republic, who had already encroached upon the Osage’ southern border. Faced with the overwhelming resources of the EAR, Pawhuska signed a treaty with New Tulsa. The Osage ceded their lands surrounding Lake Keystone, Lake Skiatook, and Bartlesville to the Evangelicals, but regained control of the rest of Osage County and received compensation for the numerous Osage casinos and hotels that were nationalized and shut down by the moralizing Tulsans. Following the treaty, the two powers conducted a general population transfer in which Osage people evacuated to Osage territory, while non-Osage were resettled around Lake Skiatook.
Chief Bigeagle, who had long struggled with radiation-induced leukemia, passed away shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Skiatook. He was succeeded by John Littlecrow, his chief of police, who immediately held tribal elections in which he did not stand, preferring to rule through the Principal Chief instead of remaining one himself. The Osage Nation remains an oligarchic state, though it has slightly relaxed its racial laws to better accommodate foreign traders and other visitors.
Evangelical American Republic
Capital: New Tulsa (Sand Springs)
Classification: Religious Faction (Semi-theocratic republic)
Thanks to a surprisingly successful missile defense, the City of Tulsa was spared nuclear destruction in the first days of the Great War. Not only did this incredible interception spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, it gave surviving authorities critical time to evacuate important personnel and equipment. For a week, Tulsa was the largest city in the United States until it was destroyed in a follow-up attack.2
The lighter secondary bombardment left Tulsa in a more intact position than most other destroyed cities. Downtown Tulsa itself was demolished, but the metropolitan area remained habitable. Most of the survivors fled to central Oklahoma or Grand Lake, but many who stayed moved upstream to Sand Springs. The Tulsan suburb was repopulated by these refugees and renamed to New Tulsa. The site was designated as a Reconstruction and Recovery Center by the Twin Falls Government and functioned as a center of state authority, answering to both Edmond and Twin Falls.
When Edmond was destroyed and the legislators in Guymon proclaimed their own government, Noah Hopkins—Acting Attorney General of the Edmond Government and general Pooh-Bah of the Tulsa area—proclaimed a rival government. The reasons for his revolt are political. Most of Oklahoma’s furthest-right elements congregated in New Tulsa rather than join Edmond or Guymon. This included a strong Christian Nationalist faction, to which Hopkins belonged.
Further east, across the Mississippi, far-right figures and Christian Nationalists had proclaimed a government of their own. While the cinders of Twin Falls were still hot with radioactive ash, rightist political leaders had gathered in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and proclaimed the “Regenerated United States in Congress Assembled,” a rival far-right government to challenge Amarillo. The Regenerated Congress, as it became known, attracted declarations of support from other states, including Tennessee, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Hopkins added Oklahoma to the Regenerated Congress and pursued similar rightist, Christian Nationalist policies.
The Regenerated Congress was quickly faced with political infighting between the more pragmatic established politicians and the radical militia commanders and pastor-warlords. Such a split occurred in New Tulsa as well, but the upstart Hopkins—a lowly lawyer before the Edmond Government thrust him into office—successfully balanced himself between the two factions and avoided the strife that affected Arkansas and Mississippi.
Hopkins had high hopes of attaining the Presidency by running on the Christian Party ticket. They were dashed when the political establishment rigged the national elections and threw the religious right and the militia commanders out. Hopkins held his own congress which elected him President, while the Regenerated Congress in Mississippi collapsed into civil war. Hopkins’ first decree as President was to obliterate his own office. He declared the United States a spiritually dead nation and drafted a new Constitution for the Evangelical American Republic, its rightful successor.
Hopkins’ new government blended American republicanism with theocracy. It is an officially Christian state, yet there is no one state church. Instead, the Republic recognizes a list of valid Churches, which generally include all Nicene, Trinitarian Christians. This includes Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox Christians, much to the frustration of some Protestant fundamentalists. Delegations from all the churches assemble in the Council of Churches, the Republic’s legislative body.
The Council is one of the only bicameral legislatures in the country. Its lower house is made up of the Councilors Temporal, representatives elected by popular vote. Each representative must belong to a constitutionally-approved church. The Councilors Temporal then select members of their church to sit as Councilors Spiritual. The Councilors Spiritual are the upper house of the Republic, and consist entirely of clergymen and pastors. The Councilors Spiritual elect a secular statesman to become the President of the Republic.
The Council is divided along political and confessional lines. Most of its members and electorate are what the rest of the country would describe as “far right,” so factionalism largely follows church lines. The largest faction is the populistic Pentecostals, who have the backing of the influential Oral Roberts University. They are barely outnumbered by a coalition of two smaller factions, the Reformed and Baptists (given the existence of Reformed Baptists, there is significant overlap between the two). The main political divide occurs between the Pentecostals and the Reformed–Baptist coalition, but other factions have a significant presence in the Council of Churches.
The Methodists and the historically Black Churches have their own smaller factions, which are generally more moderate and less outspoken. The Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox are all rolled into one coalition, “the Creeds,” since they are only tolerated due to their technical adherence to the Nicene Creed (which included the Orthodox after a lengthy and inconclusive debate on the Filioque). The Creeds are barely accepted by the rest of the Council and are usually the first to be blamed whenever something goes wrong. The Catholics in particular are perpetually one economic or political disaster away from being consumed in a religious riot.
All other legally-approved religious denominations, such as Episcopalians or the Church of Christ, are too small to form any sort of meaningful power bloc in the Council, though they still have a small handful of seats. All other religions are outlawed, with one notable exception. Jews are legally tolerated by the Evangelical Constitution and enjoy some, but not all, political rights. Conservative Judaism even has a large enough presence in New Tulsa that they are granted two non-voting observer seats in the Council: one Temporal and one Spiritual. Non-Trinitarian Christian groups, such as Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses, are persecuted with the same prejudice suffered by foreign religions and atheists. Satanists receive the worst treatment of all, targeted in what a few would consider an unspeakable injustice, and what most others would call the just dues of an evil cult.
All manner of spiritual and political issues are debated within the halls of the Council of Churches. One of the most heated questions is that of Christian Nationalism vs. Theonomy. Christian Nationalism, as defined by the Republic, advocates for top-down Christian leadership that follows natural law in the manner of ancient philosopher-kings. They are heavily influenced by Thomas Aquinas and are favored by Roman Catholics. Theonomy, by contrast, is a more bottom-up solution that involves the application of Biblical law in a modern political setting. The Calvinists are intense proponents of this theory. On a more fundamental level, the debate concerns the degree to which the Republic should enforce religion and morality upon its citizenry. Should the Republic strive for a moral society with Christian values, or should they directly concern themselves with the faith of the people in Jesus Christ?
Other hotly-debated questions are entirely secular, such as the issue of public utilities. Unable to draw drinkable water from the salty bed of the Arkansas River, New Tulsa has reached its carrying capacity in terms of municipal tap water. Most of its water supply comes from the Shell Creek Dam, which is privately owned by an influential Pentecostal leader. Dovish Pentecostals argue for the expansion of local infrastructure, while hawkish Calvinists demand territorial expansion to conquer the Spavinaw Dam from Shangri-La and restore the pipeline to Tulsa. The political culture even exists at the street level, where gangs and paramilitaries are organized around confessional lines. The Pentecostals run the New Wave gang, while the fearsome Triple Seven Mafia patrols the streets for the Reformed faction.
The Republic claims the entire former United States as their rightful territory, but largely pursues a rigid course of isolationism. They occasionally shed their insularity in bouts of expansionism, such as during the annexation of Bartlesville. The oil town, led by the Promethean Energy-dominated Washington Security Bloc, suffered a Christian revolution when they attempted to purge the religious right. The Evangelicals intervened on behalf of the rebelling Christians and conquered the city, alongside a strip of Osage borderlands. Their most recent acquisition is Coffeyville, a prosperous but hotly-contested Kansan border town.
The Evangelical Republic’s isolationism and dogmatic assertion of their national dominion has not left them with many friends. Their expansionism has brought them into contact with the Jayhawkers of East Kansas and the Osage Indians. As the conflict between the OEMG and the Road Warriors reaches a crescendo, the Evangelicals may be forced to cooperate with foreign allies or find a new enemy on their doorstep.
Shangri-La
Capital: Shangri-La
Classification: Local Government (City-state league)
Home to Oklahoma’s youngest and largest city, Shangri-La is one of the most prosperous local government factions in the country. Shangri-La was originally a resort community at the southern tip of Monkey Island, a popular vacation destination at the Grand Lake o’ the Cherokees. After the Great War, the Grand Lake area was hit with an influx of wealthy refugees from Tulsa, bringing all they had with them. A great boon to the Grand Lake area was the Pensacola Dam, untargeted by nuclear weapons and able to provide the region with electricity. Many refugees fled to existing towns like Grove and Disney, but many others moved to Monkey Island and built a new town out of the resorts and lakeside houses.
Now Shangri-La is Oklahoma’s largest city after New Tulsa and is virtually entirely electrified. Far removed from the oversight of Guymon, Shawnee, or New Tulsa, local authorities have assembled a new government for themselves from scratch. More than just being an alliance of towns and counties, it has a central government in Shangri-La. In addition to the Chief Executive, its head of state, Shangri-La has a unicameral legislature, the Legislative Council. With so much money flowing through the city, both government and industry are monitored by the powerful Shangri-La Tax Commission, which has evolved into a secret police force.
Most of Shangri-La’s history has been under the rule of Chief Executive Hiram Lynch, a visionary who dreams of Shangri-La as America’s city of the future. Where most people are simply trying to get by, he dreams of wide thoroughfares and art deco towers. He has begun dispatching expeditions across the tristate area to recover scrap electronics and prospect for the necessary materials to create a new electronics industry. Diplomatically, Shangri-La is cordial to neighboring powers and is steadily enveloping and annexing friendly independent towns in the region. Its most recent foreign policy triumph is the annexation of Miami, now the second-largest city in the alliance. As the Ozark kingdom drives closer to their frontiers, the Chief Executive must now decide if he should befriend the King or defy him.
Cherokee Nation
Capital: Tahlequah
Classification: Native American Faction (Oklahoman Indian nation)
The Cherokee Nation is Oklahoma’s most populous and most prosperous Indian faction. Its legal status is a matter of some dispute, as the US Supreme Court prior to the Great War ruled that the original Indian Treaties granting the Cherokee Nation much of what is now eastern Oklahoma were never withdrawn. The Cherokee Nation claims ownership of all fourteen counties that now make up their original reservation, though they only administer the lands from Sallisaw to Tahlequah to Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
Their government is one of the most robust out of any American Indian faction, having preserved their prewar system intact. They hold regular elections for their executive branch (the Principal Chief, his Cabinet, and the other executive Group Leaders) and legislative branch (the rump Tribal Council, whose district seats are not all filled), as well as local governmental positions. In the absence of higher state authority, the Cherokee incorporated local county and city governments and police forces into their administration. The Cherokee also has its own judiciary, with a District Court and a Supreme Court. Lastly, they continue to appoint one non-voting Delegate to the US House of Representatives, a position that has evolved into something like a minister of foreign affairs.
Though the Cherokee are now domestically secure, they have had more than their share of struggles to face to reach their current position. The first and greatest threat came from unruly refugee columns out of Muskogee, Fort Smith, and Fayetteville. Second were counties and municipalities, especially those run by non-Indians, who did not want to submit to Cherokee rule. The third threat was from another Indian nation, the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians, who asserted their own claims to sovereignty over Cherokee lands. The Keetoowah, being few in number, chiefly manifested in the form of a Cherokee warlord who attempted to capture Tahlequah and failed.
The refugees were mostly dealt with by the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, the tribal police force that serves under the Principal Chief. The Marshals were supplemented by cooperative law enforcement as well as the Cherokee Legion, a newly-raised volunteer militia that evolved into the military arm of the Cherokee state. After maintaining a perimeter around Tahlequah and Sallisaw during the Starving Time, the Cherokee steadily expanded outward, even capturing Siloam Springs, Arkansas from the petty warlord who held it.
The fourth and final challenger was the Order of Elohim, a white supremacist paramilitary that originated in Elohim City, a prewar colony of about 100 Christian Identity militants, almost all of whom were related to one another. The small, radical force reemerged from decades of isolation to recruit among refugees from Fort Smith. Only a few answered their call, but the fanatic warriors overran impoverished Adair County and transformed it into their own radical fiefdom until the Cherokee conquered them.
Like the Osage Nation, one of the major political and social questions throughout the Cherokee Nation is the status of non-Indians living within its borders. The Cherokee chose to maintain their prewar citizenship criteria, with membership based on descent from the Dawes Rolls and not on blood quantum. Non-Cherokee citizens enjoy legal protections and are permitted to vote in local elections, hold local offices, and serve in local law enforcement, but are excluded from any participation in the tribal government. A notable autonomous zone for non-Cherokee is Clear Creek, a colony of more than a thousand traditionalist Catholics who took in white refugees displaced by the Cherokee expansion. They cooperate with Cherokee authorities and have a special compact with the government in Tahlequah. Some despise this arrangement as Indians setting up a reservation for whites, while others are happy to practice their faith far removed from the religious tension of New Tulsa.
The Cherokee officially maintain a bilingual policy regarding the use of English and Cherokee, but have been steadily phasing out English at the national level. As in most other linguistic enclaves throughout the country (such as Louisiana French, Acadian French, Texas German, Arabic in Michigan, and a multitude of Native American languages), the destruction of worldwide digital media has been a godsend for the continued survival of the Cherokee language.
Diplomatically, the Cherokee are rather isolated. They are rather insistent on their claims of sovereignty over the full fourteen-county reservation zone. They consider any factions that possess territory within that zone to be illegal squatters, putting them at odds with Shangri-La and the EAR. They have not seceded from the United States and consider the US and the State of Oklahoma to be legitimate entities, but do not recognize any specific higher government. Dodge City is out of the question for them—they abandoned Tahlequah and all the Cherokee people, after all. They despise the Eufaula Rifle Brigade in general for being a warlord state and in particular for harboring former members of the Order of Elohim. Even the Osage are not on good terms with them, as the Osage denounces their treatment of the Keetoowah Cherokee.
Relations with the Kingdom of the Ozarks are complicated, albeit civil. The Ozarks occupy no Cherokee territory, nor do they claim any. Their status as an independent nation puts them in a state of diplomatic limbo, as the Cherokee still maintain their nominal loyalty to the United States—though the Ozarks regard the Cherokee as an independent country. There is also some dispute over Siloam Springs, a Cherokee-controlled city within the antebellum borders of Arkansas. As the King of the Ozarks is also the Prince of Arkansas, the city remains his de jure territory, though its geographic isolation and small size prevent the Ozarks from firmly pressing this claim. A greater controversy is that of the Ozarks’ subjugation of the Choctaw Nation. Despite their conquest of the region, the Ozarks have bestowed more autonomy and privileges unto the Choctaw than most conquered reservations enjoy, but the Cherokee are still wary of Ozark intentions towards Tahlequah. Despite their misgivings, the Cherokee will still likely side with the King in Hot Springs, if they side with anyone at all. They’ll need to make their choice soon, as the Cherokee may not be able to sit out the coming struggle for Oklahoma on their own.
Eufaula Rifle Brigade
Capital: Eufaula
Classification: Warlord (Vigilante gang)
The Eufaula Rifle Brigade (Capital: Eufaula) is a rogue vigilante group with military pretensions that conquered the area surrounding Lake Eufaula during the Starving Time. They aren’t the first to rule the region; the area was previously governed by the legitimist Lake Eufaula Commission. The kleptocratic Commission was more interested in siphoning money from its subjects than it was in actual governing, however, which created a power vacuum that allowed the Eufaula Rifle Brigade to rise to power.
The Brigade is nearly as brutal as the Road Warriors, but is a good deal less competent. They saw the surprising success of the OEMG’s “Okie Cards” fiat currency and tried to replicate it by stamping denominations on flattened bottle caps, and are perplexed as to why the system isn’t working.
While the rest of eastern Oklahoma was consolidated into organized factions, Lake Eufaula chose to harbor criminal elements, the ne’er-do-wells that were expelled from other states. These misfits and exiles are, in turn, impressed into the military and sent abroad to raid their neighbors and bring back loot. The result is a large, battle-hardened army that is nonetheless lacking in discipline. They aren’t the worst faction out in the wasteland, but they are a thorn in the sides of all their neighbors.
Principality of Oklahoma
Capital: Poteau
Classification: Special Case (Ozark patchwork principality)
Allegiance: Kingdom of the Ozarks
Southeast Oklahoma represents the wild frontier of the Kingdom of the Ozarks, who has recently expanded into the region. Three different polities in this region fall under Ozark sovereignty: the Choctaw Nation, LeFlore County, and the Kiamichi Marches. All three of these belong to the Principality of Oklahoma, but only LeFlore County is directly administered as a part of the Principality.
Choctaw Nation
Capital: Wilburton
Classification: Native American Faction (Ozark Indian march)
The Choctaw Nation in its current configuration does not have direct continuity with the antebellum Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, but is mostly an Ozark construction. The old Choctaw Nation was headquartered in Durant and had authority over Choctaw Indians living within southeast Oklahoma. Following the Great War, the Choctaw had loose control over Durant and the surrounding towns, but lacked the concentrated strength of the Osage or Cherokee. When Durant was conquered by the Texoma Free State, the rest of the Choctaw Nation was cast adrift among the general lawlessness and anarchy of the region.
When the Ozarks appeared in Oklahoma, they worked with cooperative elements of the Choctaw Nation to create their own tribal government from scratch. This new Choctaw government combines elements of the old government with facets of Ozark aristocracy. Even before the Great War, the Choctaw already had a 25% blood quantum requirement for tribal membership; the modern Choctaw Nation maintains this requirement.
Rather than let them remain loosely dispersed throughout southwest Oklahoma, the Ozarks sponsored a population transfer in which Choctaw Indians were resettled around the newly-fortified towns of Wilburton and Talihina. The newly-defined reservation functions as a buffer against the Eufaula Rifle Brigade and the McAlester Exclusion Zone, both of which are infamous for harboring escaped criminals. The local government and economy is structured around building the Choctaw up into a militarized march, providing a pool of manpower upon which the Ozarks can draw for western campaigns.
LeFlore County
Capital: Poteau
Classification: Local Government (Ozark free county)
To the east is LeFlore County, the capital of the Principality of Oklahoma and the only county to be directly under the Governor-General’s administration. In theory, King Malcolm’s son-in-law Michael Wycliffe is the Prince of Oklahoma and is responsible for its governance, but in practice the Prince is more concerned with matters in the capital and the military, and leaves his duties in Oklahoma to an appointed Governor-General.
LeFlore could be described as the only “normal” county in Ozark Oklahoma. This is mainly because LeFlore was the only county government in the region that made it out of the Starving Time intact. Poteau originally recognized no government above its own, until bandits from McAlester, Fort Smith, and Eufaula forced them to lean on General Malcolm Yates of the Ozark Transitional Government for protection. Their voluntary submission to Malcolm earned them his favor.
After consolidating his original dominion into the Royal Domain, he allowed LeFlore to retain its independence across state lines. When Malcolm crowned himself King of the Ozarks, LeFlore became the nucleus of the new Principality of Oklahoma. The county Sheriff was ennobled as the Duke of LeFlore3 and later appointed Governor-General of Oklahoma. He has a loose hold over the rest of the Principality, though his rule is mostly nominal further south and west; within the county itself, he prefers to rule through the appointed county Sheriff (his former deputy) and the elected Mayor of Poteau.
Kiamichi Marches
Capital: Broken Bow
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal vassal realm)
Further south are the Kiamichi Marches, a bizarre territory on the Ozarks’ southwestern frontier. This land was wild and lawless before the Ozarks arrived. Its few populated towns were previously ruled by petty warlords and gangs, the largest of which was the legitimist Cotton Country Special Administration in Broken Bow. The Ozark newcomers are still very much in the process of moving in and breaking up the old gangs. In fact, the Marches are still only under loose Ozark control as a frontier territory. Law is selectively enforced here and often not enforced at all in the mountainous backcountry.
The Marches follow the system of “Marcher Law,” rather than mainstream Ozark laws and customs. While the rest of the Ozarks live under a centralized government with a formal legal system, the Kiamichi Marches more closely resemble typical wasteland neo-feudalism. The Marches are ruled over by the Marcher Lords, who each have the rank of Marcher (“Marquess” sounded too French and feminine) and rule over their own respective territories. Like in the Choctaw Nation, these Marchers are a combination of soldiers and frontiersmen from Arkansas and Oklahoma alike, whose purpose is to establish a militarized buffer to defend the Ozarks from the warlords further south and west.
The main regional body that ties the Marcher Lords together is the Council of the Kiamichi Marches, a bicameral assembly with an upper house of Marchers and a lower house of elected burgesses. The Council makes local decisions and answers to the Governor-General in Poteau. Though Poteau and the Council do their best to rein the Marcher Lords in, Kiamichi remains the rough-and-tumble frontier of the Ozark kingdom.
Index
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Author’s Note: Oklahoma has an exceptionally long and detailed entry, one of the longest of the entire Fallen Continent series. It also has more developed lore and receives some special treatment, including “wishful thinking” regarding the lighter nuclear bombardment or the development of certain cities. This is because the state serves as the centerpiece of a novel in which the Fallen Continent setting exists. More information on this novel may follow towards the end of this series, but for now I will simply focus on developing the factions as they stand on the map.
Follow-up attacks refers to the second wave of nuclear strikes in the Third World War. Before the Great War was the six-month conventional warfare period of WWIII. The Great War consisted of the first wave, which occurred over a period of two days. The follow-up attacks lasted from day three until roughly two weeks into the nuclear war. These are not to be confused with the secondary strikes, which began with the destruction of Twin Falls, Idaho on the third month of the nuclear war (ninth month of WWIII) and continued until the destruction of Walla Walla, Washington on the twentieth month of the nuclear war (twenty-sixth and final month of WWIII).
As the ruler of a county, Lord LeFlore would naturally be an earl by default. He was created a duke, however, to outrank the Marcher lords of the Kiamichi Marches, who themselves rank above earls. Confusingly, the territory itself is still referred to as LeFlore County, and there is ongoing discussion to transform it into an official duchy.