The Fallen Continent: Oregon
A land of stark contrasts and powerful factions, Oregon was left relatively unscathed by the Great War.
Population: 740,000
Largest City: Corvallis
Blessed by the blood of martyrs,
Land of the setting sun;
Hail to thee, Land of Promise,
My Oregon.
Introduction
Oregon is now one of the most populous states in the country. It is also a land of bitter contrasts. Large, powerful factions wage war here, hoping to dominate the state and use it as an engine for further conquests. Among them is the State of Oregon, one of the most powerful remaining state governments in the United States, and a likely contender for the next master of the Pacific Northwest.
State of Oregon
Capital: Corvallis
Classification: State Legacy Faction (State government)
The rump State of Oregon is one of the most powerful state governments in the country, alongside the likes of New Hampshire, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. One of its greatest boons was the survival of its Lieutenant Governor, who was stuck in a traffic jam on I-5 between Salem and Portland when the bombs fell. He promptly caught up with the rest of the state government’s remnants and established a provisional capital in the college town of Eugene. The Lieutenant Governor acted fast, knowing that he lived on borrowed time before a secondary strike would inevitably take him out. By the time he perished alongside the rest of Eugene, he had successfully dispersed government elements and resources throughout Ciscascadian Oregon. The other most important decision he made was one of triage, abandoning Transcascadian Oregon to its fate and withdrawing all the military forces he could; only the 168th Aviation Regiment disobeyed him and remained east of the Cascades.
Succeeding him was the new Acting Governor, the President of the Oregon State Senate, himself elected by a legislature of 11 surviving senators. The State of Oregon evaded further secondary strikes by keeping a roving capital, moving from place to place throughout the state for the next two years. When the fear of a secondary strike subsided, the government finally settled down in Corvallis, the largest city that remained under their control.
After a further two years, the government held its first elections since before the Great War. They were limited in scope: only statewide offices like the Governor were up for election, and these offices retained significant emergency powers. The legislature was and still is not elected, but is appointed by the executive branch until the “emergency” can be brought to an end. Nonetheless, it’s more than what other factions enjoy, and Oregon was among the first states to re-introduce state-level democracy.
The Oregon Miracle
The standard of living in Oregon is among the highest in the country. Food security is good, the roads are relatively well-maintained, and the railroads have returned to operation. Most houses have electricity, nearly all have running water, and there is even a small regional computer network, thanks to dial-up modems in certain government and military buildings. It has one of the largest industrial bases in the country, able to produce automobiles powered by gasified charcoal—and a strong enough chemical industry to know how to produce said fuel. It enjoys overseas trade with other Pacific countries, has several Pacific consulates in Corvallis, and even boasts the third-largest economy in the country, after the United States of Aztlan and the United States of America in Dodge City, just barely beating out the Kingdom of the Ozarks. They use a form of fiat currency minted by the City of Corvallis known as the Beaver Dollar as their de facto state currency.
Despite all their strengths, Oregon has much to overcome. Aside from the trouble caused by Redhouse’ Wild Bunch, their internal security is steadfast, and civil unrest was manageable even in the coldest months of the Starving Time. Yet beyond their borders, trouble is brewing. A far-rightist army gathers just across the Cascades, and the only military force who could help defeat them is equally hostile, having pledged themselves to Bozeman, instead. Southwest Oregon, the only Ciscascadian region that was wrestled out of their hands by warlords during the Starving Time, has since been subjugated by the State of Jefferson, Oregon’s hostile neighbor.
Faced with threats in all directions, Corvallis hopes that it can build a wider coalition of democratic factions to pool their forces in order to defeat the twin threats of white nationalism and warlordism. They are the strongest proponents of the Pacific Project, the plan to create a pan-Pacific democratic US government to rival Bozeman or Dodge City. Alaska, Washington, the Continuity State of California, and even Nevada are all interested, but each of them are also skeptical of the dominance Oregon would have over such a union. Oregon is even trying to get Hawaii back on board with the project, or at least offering to buy back some of the formidable Hawaiian Navy for the United States.
State of Jefferson
Capital: Redding, California
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Neo-feudal regime)
To the south, the State of Jefferson staunchly defends its territory in southern Oregon, centered around the bastions of Grants Pass and Medford. These towns originally fell to warlords on their own during the Starving Time, when state authority was weak. Medford was the fiefdom of a rogue local official, Ashton the holdings of a tyrannical sheriff, and Grants Pass the conquest of a survivalist warlord. These petty dictators still lord over their old fiefdoms, but now do so as the neo-feudal vassals of Jefferson.
Just what is a neo-feudal warlord? How does the mighty State of Jefferson operate? These questions will be answered in the Californian entry, which will come next after a special installment of the Fallen Continent series, concerning Nuclear Exclusion Zones.
National Security Army
Capital: Lakeview
Classification: Federal Legacy (Rogue federal agency)
The “Outback” of southern Oregon is a vast, sparse place, with few inhabitants and expansive tracts of federally-owned land. These two features led to the rise of Lakeview, Oregon as one of the country’s few federal legacy factions. Already hosting a large population of government agents at the turn of the millennium, Lakeview was bolstered by the federal government as a bulwark of federal authority. The city was filled to the brim with agents from the FBI, ATF, NSA, US Marshals, BLM, and US Fish and Wildlife Service to police the lawless countryside that had been largely lost to the white separatist Northwest Volunteer Army at the start of the Great 21st Century Crisis.
Even before the nukes started flying, Lakeview was a city under siege, highly militarized and fortified. With such a tumultuous countryside, it had to fend for itself during periods where the connecting roads were too dangerous to allow for reinforcement. On the eve of the Great War, federal agents comprised over 30% of the city’s population.
The Oregon Federal Authority
After the bombs fell, Lakeview’s kaleidoscope of alphabet agencies exploded with activity, quelling the civil unrest that was exacerbated by an NVA general uprising. Twin Falls viewed the town as a repository of experienced troops that they could draw upon to pacify the Pacific Northwest and withdrew most of the city’s garrison. These feds were mostly dispatched elsewhere in Oregon, and those who still live today are mostly loyal to either the State of Oregon or the USA-Bozeman. Many, however, were stationed in cities that were later destroyed in secondary strikes.
Of the skeleton crew that remained garrisoned in Lakeview, it was the United States Fish and Wildlife Service that stepped up to command the other agencies as national authority dwindled. Under the rule of the “fish cops,” Lakeview’s alphabet soup was consolidated into a single Oregon Federal Authority, which followed the dictates of the Amarillo government after Twin Falls was destroyed. When Amarillo fell in turn, the OFA followed the chain of successors from Ingersoll’s Dodge City government, to Ingersoll’s Midland government, to the Walla Walla compromise government, until Walla Walla was destroyed in the final action of the Third World War.
The National Security Army
With no interest in bending the knee to the highly suspect aspiring dictator in Bozeman, Lakeview formed a dictatorship of its own. The Federal Authority took on national ambitions and became the National Security Army, a ruthless, expansionist force bent on conquering the American west. It operates similarly to a standard neo-feudal warlord regime, yet its federal roots give it an added legitimacy and fear factor that upstart warlords can only dream of. With no other powers in the region to match them, the NSA has brought the Oregon Outback and northeast California under the Eye of Providence.
The NSA has long since crushed the NVA’s vestigial remnants in the region, and now it is turning its attention west. The ongoing Oregon-Jefferson rivalry has given the NSA an excellent opportunity to wait on the sidelines and strike when either side presents a sufficient weakness. Their wide eastern flank leaves them vulnerable to frequent raids by the FOVA and the smaller warlords of the desert, however.
Interestingly, the ruler of the NSA does not claim the office of President of the United States. Instead, the NSA is headed by the self-proclaimed Acting Secretary of the Interior—an office with powers so broad and ill-defined that he might as well be the President. The rationale behind the decision is twofold; being led by a Secretary of the Interior helps the NSA stand out amongst many federal claimants, and the under-ambitious title gives them room to score an alliance with said federal claimants, or even non-federal factions that have a vague, undefined relationship with the federal government.
Born in the USA
Capital: Denio, Nevada
Classification: Far-right Ideological Faction (Right-wing warlord)
Born in the USA is a redneck warlord state employing American nationalist rhetoric against the liberalism of Corvallis, the secular white nationalism of Coeur d’Alene, and the distant federal authority of Bozeman. It’s not likely they will get far, but they put up a good fight in their occasional raids against the other factions of eastern Oregon and northern Nevada.
Guts MacCormac
Capital: Jordan Valley
Classification: Warlord (Personalistic warlord gang)
Gregg “Guts” MacCormack is an old-school warlord with a band of loyal followers who rode with him out of the Nevada desert. The extremely sparse population of southeast Oregon can’t support much more than a single prominent warlord, and Guts has stepped in to fill this role. He has a few dozen fighters under his command and sends them out near and far to bring back loot to his home base in Jordan Valley. Some warlord gangs are bound together by a common gang identity, a locality, or even an ideology, but others are only held together by a single magnetizing personality and the desire for loot. Guts MacCormac’s gang is one of the latter.
Snake River Republic
Capital: Ontario
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Flawed democracy)
Straddling the border with Idaho, the Snake River Republic is another warlord regime hoping to ride out the storm of the Oregon Wars. It began as the conquests of a Free Souls outlaw motorcycle gang, but has meshed surprisingly well with the local governments and evolved into its own rough-and-tumble republic. Elections are rowdy, contentious, and marred by brawling at the polls. They’ve developed a reputation for their neutrality, however, and both the NAR and USA-Bozeman respect their autonomy for the sake of convenience.
Oregon Military District
Capital: Pendleton
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
Allegiance: United States of America (Bozeman)
The Oregon Military District was established by the 168th Aviation Regiment, along with other remnants of the Oregon National Guard who refused to follow the rest of the state government across the Cascades. Viewing the Corvallis government as traitors for abandoning half of the state, the 168th went their own way and established a military government from their camp in Pendleton. To further spite Corvallis and to garner more support against the rising threat of the militias, they called on the federal government in Bozeman, Montana for aid. Now, they are the western vanguard of the Bozeman Government, driving a wedge between the Northwest American Republic and its army in Oregon and stubbornly resisting the racialists’ attempts to dislodge them.
Free Oregon Volunteer Army
Capital: Bend
Classification: Right-wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
Allegiance: Northwest American Republic
The Free Oregon Volunteer Army is the Northwest American Republic’s foothold in the Beaver State. Unlike in other states, where the Northwest Volunteer Army functioned mostly as a rural guerilla army, the NVA’s presence in Oregon was mostly urban. What rural forces it did field were ground to dust and driven into urban safeholds by federal task forces like the one based in Lakeview. As a result, the NVA in Oregon perished alongside the leftists, liberals, and everyone else in the major cities like Eugene, Salem, and Portland. Their last remaining presence in the state was Zack Redhouse’s Astoria Flying Column in Clatsop County—who tended to disobey Army Council commands and could not be relied upon to follow orders—and a few dozen volunteers east of the Cascades.
Starting over with this small nucleus, the NVA set to work rebuilding its presence in Oregon. They connected with other, smaller right-wing militias and survivalist groups, even ones that were previously not amenable to NAR ideology due to religious or racial identity issues. This motley crew of militiamen was reorganized into the FOVA, whose legal status within the NAR is a matter of continuing dispute. They do not participate in national elections or have much in the way of civil government; essentially, they are a typical right-wing militia regime that happens to recognize the Republic in Coeur d’Alene. Coeur d’Alene, for their part, does not have exceptional confidence in the FOVA, whom they distrust as being insufficiently committed to white nationalism or national socialism and too attached to the American identity and Christian nationalism.
Though they lack the cohesion, professionalism, or ideological devotion of the NVA, the FOVA is nonetheless a formidable force. Their proudest accomplishment to this point has been their capture of Bend from the rogue county administrator who previously held it. They have since relocated their headquarters to this city, which is now their largest population center. They fight intermittently with the Corvallis government and some of the smaller factions throughout the state, but their main opponents are the Oregon Military District. As much as they want to defeat the Pendleton militarists, the FOVA is somewhat reluctant to put the rest of the NAR right on their doorstep.
Hell’s Rangers
Capital: Arlington
Classification: Warlord (Raider gang)
Hell’s Rangers are a typical raider band that survived the madness that befell the banks of the Columbia River. This gang of grizzled survivors from Astoria, Longview, and Portland fought their way upstream until they settled in Arlington. The unfortunate town was left to fend for itself after the rest of Gilliam County fell to the militiamen, and was helpless to resist the Rangers’ advance. As most traffic across the Columbia River occurs at Rufus or Richland, the Rangers focus on raiding said traffic on both sides of the Columbia, and upon the river itself.
Columbia River Authority
Capital: Rufus
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Rogue city regime)
In the chaos of a world-wide nuclear war, not everything went as planned. Some cities that were targeted by enemy missiles were left unscathed, while other places that did nothing to deserve the enemy’s wrath were annihilated. Rufus is one such place that can count itself lucky. For whatever reason, the John Day Dam escaped the enemy’s grasp and even survived the secondary strike period. Thanks to the dam’s survival, this stretch of the Columbia River is still able to produce electricity, and has naturally attracted a few thousands of survivors.
The dam and its neighboring settlements are controlled by the Columbia River Authority, an eclectic legitimist regime that originated with Rufus’ rogue mayor and the Army engineers who were assigned to the dam. The Authority has also incorporated stragglers from the police departments of other destroyed cities along the Columbia, as well as misfits and outcasts who fled FOVA country. Although they’re a local oligarchy of warlords, they do still wish to present themselves as a respectable and legitimate entity, and pride themselves on offering (and taxing) safe passage over the Columbia River.
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs
Capital: Warm Springs
Classification: Native American Faction (Indian reservation)
Allegiance: State of Oregon
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs are the only Indian faction in the state. Being so close to the FOVA, they have appealed to the State of Oregon for help, recognizing them as the rightful authority in exchange for military assistance. A large detachment of Oregonian troops sits in their fortifications at Warm Springs, to both the relief and the frustration of the native population.
Wild Bunch
Capital: Seaside
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Far-right warlord)
Led by Colonel “Mad Zack” Redhouse, the Wild Bunch is a terrible thorn in the State of Oregon’s side. Originally called the Astoria Flying Column, they were some of the Northwest Volunteer Army’s most elite and feared troops, but also brutal and hard to control. Eventually, the Column broke entirely with the NVA and went on a rampage across the Cascadian countryside. Now they are holed up at the very northern corner of the state, and the Corvallis government cannot seem to root them out.
Index
Click here to read the master post of the series, with links at the bottom of the page to all other Fallen Continent entries.
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Great job, I would probably have to say my favorite factions would be the State of Oregon and The Northwest Volunteer Army. 👍
This is amazing.