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This is a commission from Mindtraveller , which creates a world split between five blocs, each of which is inspired by one of the colors in Magic: The Gathering. There had to be some creative liberties here, as forcing some of the color philosophies to work in the context of a modern, industrialized world and not a fantasy setting. If you are interested in your own commission, read this post and send me a private message.

The PoD is the Germans doing far better during the Battle of France than they did IOTL, allowing them to capture a lot of leaders of the OTL French Resistance (including de Gaulle) and negotiate from a position of even greater strength. The Germans agree to keep France whole under Petain’s regime in Paris, but in turn it would have to join the Axis Powers. The French agree, and the British fail to destroy the French fleets, meaning the specter of an Axis invasion of Britain is constant.

The war does end with an Axis defeat, but with the Soviets still fighting in Poland. The war in Europe ended with an alt-Valkyrie in 1943, which succeeds in assassinating Hitler. The new German government negotiates peace with the Allies, which aside from some territorial concessions to Poland leads to a united, neutral Germany and more Western dominance in post-war Europe. A pro-Western European union is formed, which becomes a German-dominated club when Germany joins in the mid-1960s.

In Asia, with the earlier end of the war, both the Soviets and Americans invade Japan before the atomic bomb is ready. Both the Soviets and Americans commit more to the Chinese Civil War, which like OTL Korea leads to direct intervention from both sides. With the development of atomic weapons by the Americans, the Soviets retreat, but the Chinese Communists continue the fight and lead to China being even more devastated than it was IOTL. This leads to the rise of neo-monarchists in China who regard the Republic of China as one of the country’s biggest mistakes. The neo-monarchists won and establish the Bai Dynasty, becoming the third power in the *Cold War.

The early Cold War is far more intense. The Americans, after the brutality of WWII and the Chinese Civil War, retreated inward, and was wary of communist infiltration from a Soviet Union eager to make gains through subterfuge to make up for the loss of China. Anti-communist sentiment is so great that the Americans turn to the polar opposite of communism, espoused by Ayn Rand during her testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee: Objectivism. An alternate Arab-Israeli War leads to greater gains for Israel, comparable to the OTL Six Day War. The alternate Suez Crisis in response ends with a Soviet-backed United Arab Republic rendering the Suez Canal useless by sinking outdated naval vessels within it, throwing a major wrench into global trade and allowing South Africa to become a major economic power.

Long Divided, Must Unite – China under the Bai Dynasty is a rising tiger. The Bai Dynasty chose its name to symbolize both the purity of its cause and its revival from the death of China during the Chinese Civil War. Tapping deep into Chinese tradition, the Bai Dynasty reject all Western ideas, but embrace industrial society. They are not as innovative as the European Technocracy, and technological progress is still stifled by government regulation to make sure that the technology will not disrupt society. China’s population has rebounded, and it is once again the most populous country on the planet, giving it command of the world’s third largest economy, behind the United States and the European Technocracy. This economy is largely limited to its sphere, the Chinese believing that disorderly barbarians have little to offer them. However, given China’s dominance over the Asian continent, the Chinese have plenty of reason to believe this.

The Bai Dynasty is focused on prioritizing two things: order and harmony. The two are interchangeable concepts to the Chinese government; one cannot exist without the other. Tapping into Chinese history and philosophy, the Bai Dynasty easily sold their system as distinctly Chinese, unlike the Western concepts of liberalism and communism. Order and harmony start with the family unit, and on the largest scale, involve the entirety of All Under Heaven. In practice, this means a totalitarian, conformist society under the direct control of the Chinese Emperor. China is Orwellian, and all punishment is collective, with families shamed and punished for the crimes of their relatives because it is the family’s responsibility to ensure harmony on the ground. Families of dissidents are arrested and sent to labor camps deep in the west of the country, working the mineral mines or in sweatshops. The individual’s life means nothing; everything exists for the collective, the entirety of the Chinese nation. If an individual needs to be punished or simply disappeared because they are damaging the collective, then so be it.

The United Arab Jamahiriya, once the United Arab Republic, was founded to fill the retreat of European influence in the Middle East and North Africa. The Jamahiriya forged an alliance with the Soviet Union early on, and with Soviet assistance maintained a coherent Arab state under the leadership of the military. However, despite Soviet attempts to have the Jamahiriya accept communism, it instead forged a third way: vaguely socialist economics, a strong nationalist and militaristic ethos, the fusion of Islamic and Arab identities, and an eventual rejection of both the communist and capitalist worlds. The Jamahiriya became a natural ally of China, which only made it more autocratic. The military dictatorship under Generalissimo Qaddafi persists; his word is law, and the law must be obeyed. The Jamahiriya is expanding into the rest of Africa in a quest for more lands and more glory, although few outside observers would say that there is any glory in the slaughter. Draconian punishments exist for the Jamahiriya’s laws, the brutality of which is part of the appeal. After all, nobody would disobey the Generalissimo if they knew what would happen to them if they did.

The Eurasian Federation is the product of the wide-sweeping reforms that were intended to perfect the Soviet Union, but ended up destroying it. The reformists realized that their single-party Marxist-Leninist state could not be reformed, it had to be remade. This prompted an attempted coup from the KGB, one which was crushed and only justified the de-communization of the country. The Eurasian Federation is territorially identical to the Soviet Union, save for Ukraine and the Baltics. But politically, it tries to move away from the Soviet Union as far as possible. It is a constitutional republic, modeled explicitly off the United States. However, in practice, it is a bureaucratic despotism: the Communist Party has been replaced by the apolitical bureaucracy, which has taken all power for itself and uses elected officials as puppets and scapegoats. Almost everything is handled on the bureaucratic staff level, as sweeping legal authority allows them to write their own rules. Fortunately, the leaders of these bureaucratic agencies are fanatically anti-corruption, so they interpret their rules to the letter. Unfortunately, this means little, if any, leniency. The gulags were closed only for a moment, before being filled by regular criminals and then the victims of anti-corruption campaigns.

Age of Reason – The fall of communism and the retreat of the West left a power vacuum in Europe, one ironically filled by Germany. Of course, the new Germany is a far cry from its Nazi past, or so it would claim. The new Germany dismisses nationalism as irrational tribalism and intends to do away with it through the European Technocracy, a more rational means of organizing humans. The Europeans as a whole reject their past as barbarism, humanity at its absolute worst, and insist they have moved past it. The European Technocracy is the world’s technological powerhouse, using both public and private resources in the relentless pursuit of advancing the human condition through science and technology. No limits are recognized, everything can be sacrificed upon the altar of progress. This technological supremacy allows Europe to punch far above its weight. The Europeans have a near-monopoly on space assets, their stations watching the world, and threatening it if need be.

The European Technocracy is not a democracy, and is rather proud of that fact. Democracy, after all, is the rule of the mob, moved by passions and ignorance. No, the only way to govern people is through the experts. In the case of the Technocracy, the experts are “social scientists.” The leaders of the Technocracy are men who have devoted their lives to the study of the human animal and its nature. The Technocracy issues orders from the top down to the national governments, now just appendages of the Technocracy’s state apparatus. Technocrats are chosen on the basis of hiring or promotion by higher-ranking technocrats; there are stringent anti-nepotism regulations, of course. The Technocracy’s government is a byzantine maze of regulatory boards and unelected commissions dedicated to managing every piece of society in order to maximize utility. Corporations must abide by stringent regulations, and while they are allowed to set prices and wages, they are expected to file for approval for almost anything. This leads to an economy that is smaller than it ought to be, but makes up for it with technology. Automation in Europe is unchallenged in the world, which is leading to an unemployment crisis that the Technocracy is considering solving through “unconventional human resource allocation.” Much of the Technocracy’s money goes to the sciences and academia, leading to a robust educated class; unfortunately, many are overeducated and have trouble finding jobs. The Technocracy does provide a robust welfare system, but the going thought in the Technocracy is that this is a stopgap that will need to be phased out for the sake of austerity.

The Technocracy rejects the old ideas of left and right; the government exists to rationally organize society simply because rational organization is good in and of itself. The Technocracy does not control economies for the proletariat or the nation, it controls because it is the best way to allocate resources. The Technocracy also rejects the “soft sentimentalism” that was popular in Europe in the immediate post-war years. Europe is the best because it is the most rational part of the planet, and it has no responsibility to the rest of the world for its own sake. If the rest of the world wants to emulate Europe, it ought to, but if the rest of the world wants to join the European world, they must abandon their superstitions and prejudices and embrace cold logic.

The Peruvian Combine is a mess of contradictions. It is the most progressive of the South American states, trying to implement the newest of the new from Europe, but much of society is just as agrarian and traditional as ever. The Peruvian leadership is trying to implement change, but outside of the cities, it is incapable of actually affecting it. Indeed, it is afraid of changing things too quickly, and while they want the countryside to move into the industrial age, they are afraid of the disruptive effects this might have. Peru is rich, its natural resources drawing capital, and its friendly government drawing European investment, but this wealth remains in the hands of the urban population. The Peruvian government also wants to leverage its plant and animal resources through genetic engineering, which has led to the propagation of a few entirely new invasive species. However, the Peruvians believe that if that were the case, they are creating a new, better ecology.

The United Kingdom has lost much of its power, but it has never lost its influence. Although now a junior partner to its old German adversary, the British have resisted the siren’s call of political integration into the technocracy. For perfidious Albion has no friends, only interests. For now, the winds blow from Berlin, but this alliance is one of convenience. In the face of a discarded empire, the British have focused on covert warfare. MI6 is the most feared spy agency in the world, being somewhat responsible for the destabilization that has consumed Africa and Latin America. British decolonization was intentionally botched, in order to cause chaos that could later be exploited by the British, but it caused too much chaos and now the African continent is lost forever. British foreign relations are moved by interests, causing division or unity, war or peace, whichever suits Britain at the time. Within the British Isles, the Machiavellian political games make the different parties no different from one another apart from the color ribbon they chose to wear on elections. The British are rather proud of being able to move to a system where ideology does not threaten the direct existence of the United Kingdom. The British have closed themselves to almost all travel, afraid of foreign spies being as effective as their own.

A Man Chooses, A Slave Obeys – The United States has won the Cold War, or so it tells itself. While the Americans have less direct political influence over the world, they have triumphed over the parasites within their own society. America was the land of the free, and now it is free from the mewing and bleating of the weak. The old cancer of altruism, that once threatened to strangle American innovation and industry before and during WWII, is now forever dead. Now, the great will no longer be constrained by the small.

The modern United States is influenced directly by Ayn Rand, hailed as a visionary and the philosophical fountainhead of America. Objectivism, seen as anathema to communism, became popular during the early Cold War, although it took a while for the Americans to accept the atheism and anti-altruism it espoused. However, as the American government became further mired in debt, its politicians caught in corruption and scandals, and as it became involved in more pointless wars in Africa and the Middle East, more and more Americans embraced Objectivism. The counter-culture of the 1960s was an Objectivist movement, marrying the ideas of meritocracy and individuality to free spiritedness and the rejection of old ways of thinking. Politicians moved towards Objectivism in the 1970s and 1980s as a result, leading to a retreat from old Cold War conflicts, and as the “Atlas Generation” took control during the 1990s, America became an expressly Objectivist state.

On paper, the United States is still a constitutional republic. However, the government has deregulated to such a degree that it only serves as a “night watchman;” it is the megacorporations that truly control America. From simply having influence over entire states, to owning entire towns, American megacorporations are the richest in the world, and the American economy remains the largest in the world. Of course, the Objectivist ideology so popular among the Americans means that competition is fierce, meaning that many companies rise and fall within a few years. Of course, the biggest of the big, typically those who benefited from government contracts decades ago, remain in power. Speaking of power, both Democrats and Republicans are officially Objectivist, and most politicians agree that the best way for them to do their jobs is not to do them at all.

After Japan’s defeat, the Americans established a republic modeled after their own. Initially intended to be a model society that all of East Asia can aspire to, Japan became a hive for organized crime. The power vacuum left by the Imperial throne, the military, and almost every other facet of old Japan, was filled by businessmen encouraged by the new American order. Many of the shadiest businesses, with strong connections to the Japanese Yakuza, rose to the top. They bought off politicians, and when that did not work, had them assassinated. The Americans had no issues with this shift, and simply started working with the Yakuza. To the average citizen, Japan is as orderly and lawful as ever, but in truth it is managed by a Yakuza conspiracy. The Yakuza gangs have all declared a truce with one another to guarantee that they can maintain power, focusing instead on bilking foreigners, particularly the Americans. Of course, the unity is not universal. Deep among the Yakuza is the organization calling itself the Imperial Japanese Army. Made up of Japanese neo-imperialists, they have the ultimate goal of throwing the Americans off the Japanese islands, restoring the Imperial throne, reuniting Japan, and rebuilding the Japanese Empire. Among the Yakuza, they are controversial, as some Yakuza leaders are content with the status quo. Some suspect that the IJA is, secretly, funded by the Bai Dynasty.

The African Recovery Corporation was established by American entrepreneurs on the basis of assisting Africa after the chaos of decolonization. In truth, it is the epitome of American abuse in Africa. While many of the American megacorporations operating in the Third World were abusive, the mindset of the ARC’s leadership was always supremacist. They may not believe that American supremacy is inherent, but that only fueled their desire to prove their supremacy in a world operating on the law of the jungle. The ARC only has direct control of a few port cities, which it has developed through mineral wealth, and it has control of mines and a few sites within territory it seized and purchased from local forces. Otherwise, the ARC allows most of their territory to be controlled by brutal warlords, only taking action against those who may pose a threat to their power. The ARC derives its wealth through minerals, but also through the manufacture of “biological feedstock” made from the corpses of the dead locals. Another industry that the ARC participates in is slavery, which is an open secret and tolerated only because the ARC has considerable financial and political influence in the United States. The slavery the ARC practiced ranged from forced labor to prostitution; many powerful people from around the world pay for the ARC’s unique services, and for their discretion. The Americans also outsource interrogation to the ARC.

Liberty or Death – Africa is the new continent of revolution, and of all the five blocs, the weakest. The new South Africa leads this bloc, and it is the product of compromise. South Africa became rich after the blockage of the Suez Canal, but this wealth was concentrated in the hands of the white population. The threat of communist revolution eventually convinced the South African government to abandon the apartheid system and allow the black and colored portions of the population to participate. Combined with the breakdown of social order in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the South Africans reformed to create a libertarian federation of states, one with the eventual goal of spreading freedom throughout the African continent.

The South Africans reject collectivism and hierarchy as concepts; while they are not anarchists, they believe that personal liberty and individual rights are paramount. This has led to policies which try to limit both the power of the state and the power of corporations; the South Africans see little difference between the tyranny of the Bai Dynasty and the tyranny of American megacorporations. The balance they attempt to strike has led to a robust system of regulation and self-regulation, which has unfortunately become the seed for corruption and a government too weak and legalistic to actually enforce the law. However, South Africa is still rich enough that it can afford to keep its poorest fed, even if they are not fed well and money often disappears. Personal freedom being paramount means that raising taxes is difficult, as is trying to rally the country around any sort of common purpose. Factionalism in politics and in everyday life is common. The South Africans support a variety of post-colonial states, most of whom have little control over their countries outside of the cities. The South Africans think this is okay, as tribal leadership closer to the ground is better than centralized control. In the cities, however, chaos often reigns, with criminal organizations ruling the streets.

The Italian League was what emerged from the fall of Mussolini. With the horrible experience of an Allied invasion and the Germans’ betrayal and invasion after Mussolini was captured and capitulated to the Allies, the Italians have grown to distrust the Germans and any sort of centralizing governance at all. The new Italian League, a confederation of different Italian states, is committed to the ideas of progress and freedom. The Italian states are all officially secular, and the Italian population is gradually abandoning Catholicism for atheism. Old traditions are done away with as impediments to Italian liberty and Italy’s future. Nevertheless, the Italians are all proud of their identity as a free people. All of these radical changes are proceeding much faster than the Germans would like, which is just fine, because the Italians have never wanted to take part in the European project. The Italians are dedicated to the idea of using science and technology to solve all of their problems, but instead of having a top-down system like the Europeans, allowing the free marketplace of ideas develop them to benefit the whole of the Italian people. For this reason, copyrights are not respected in Italy, the Italians believing in total freedom of information.

The United Communes of Colombia is perhaps the last bastion of hard ideological anarchism in the world, and is one of the most terrifying places on Earth. The result of a corrupt, American-backed government being destroyed in the fires of revolution by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia was a Soviet client state before the more anarchistic elements of the Colombian Revolution took control. In an attempt to bring the people back to the land and to eventually erode away the state, the anarchists ironically established a highly autocratic state that forced people into collective farms. Economic mismanagement combined with embargoes led to mass starvation, and the erosion of Colombian government control in all places but the cities. The anarchists recontextualized their loss of control as proof that the state is eroding, even as they fight to gain control from the militias, warlords, and criminal organizations that have filled the vacuum. Colombia is so radical that only the distant South Africans back them.

Life Finds a Way – Brazil and the rest of South America were historically part of the American sphere, the local autocracies cooperating with the Americans to fight communism in the region. However, as the Americans grew more abusive, the Brazilians in particular came to reject American capitalism, removed their dictatorship, and sought a new way of organizing society. No fans of communism, technocracy, or absolutism, the Brazilians decided to create their own ideology: ecoism.

The ecoist system has a simple premise: the land and the people are one and must live in harmony. This does not preclude industrialization; in fact, Brazil has one of the most powerful economies in the world. However, that industrialization must be used to benefit the land and the people. In theory, this means a robust system of regulations, checks, and redistribution to ensure that even the poorest Brazilian benefits from the wealth of the elites. In practice, it means the elites have even more control, and allow companies to deforest entire parts of the Amazon so long as they pay into an ecological relief fund which is controlled by corrupt politicians. Competition is stifled because the Brazilian government is wary of over-industrialization, which allows the existing industry to gain a stranglehold over local markets.

The ecoists believe that the land of every nation is that nation’s right, their right to use and their responsibility to nurture. Of course, the Brazilian ecoists are expansive in their beliefs on nationhood, believing the entirety of Latin America is fundamentally of one blood and must be united. As a result, Brazil has the goal of eventually establishing a pan-Latin American state, with itself as the head, naturally. The Brazilians see themselves as the protector of Latin America from predator multinationals and foreign influence generally, which only makes the local corporations much more powerful.

Brazil is a democracy, although many of their allies in Latin America are not. Even though Brazil is democratic, there is no strong opposition to ecoist politics, and radical ideologies such as communism are still banned.

Mexico’s recent history has led it to take a dark turn. As American domination turned more blatantly exploitative, successive Mexican governments faced crises of popularity and, eventually, faced several revolutions and rebellions. The net result is a very weak central government in Mexico City, albeit one now controlled by anti-American politicians, with many different groups controlling the northern deserts. The government, recognizing the limits of its capabilities, allows criminal organizations to act as its unofficial enforcers in the more remote parts of the country, and allows a degree of competition between them for power. However, the government can always find a way to get tax revenue. The government does have a military, although they save it to maintain Mexico’s independence from foreign – particularly American – influence. The Mexican government is focused primarily on independence from America, even if it means the Mexican people themselves have to suffer. They justify the suffering as strengthening the Mexican people, and only in independence can they come to define themselves. Of course, the Mexican power brokers are not a united force in anything but keeping their own power and keeping Mexico independent, so a low-level war goes on between the different gangs and government factions. However, they are smart enough to keep the violence off the streets, where the people can observe it or be harmed by it. In the north, the anarchy is such that many criminal organizations are the government, with the people simply allowing them to operate.

The British made a mess of India as they left. Rather than negotiating with the Indian National Congress or any of the other independence movements, the British simply withdrew, knowing that the subcontinent would fall into chaos. And it did fall into chaos, leading to a country that was in near-total anarchy by the 1970s. It was at this time that the Conclave appeared. A new religious movement that syncretized Hinduism and Buddhism, and took some elements of Christianity and Islam, it became popular as the other religions lost credibility due to their brutal actions against one another during the fall of India. The Conclave gradually became the force that would unite and take control of India as a whole. The religion of the Conclave preaches harmony above all else: harmony with the Earth and one another. According to the Conclave, the Earth itself is divine, and the old gods are a manifestation of this natural divinity. Selflessness is one of the highest virtues, a concept that was gradually abused by the Conclave’s religious leaders. After all, anyone who does not give up their possessions or do as they say is being selfish and not putting the community before everything as they should. The Indians have given up traditional nationalism in favor of the tribe of the Conclave, which is xenophobic to anybody who is not part of the Conclave. This has led to the Conclave becoming very oppressive towards those who refuse to convert, many of whom have fled to neighboring countries for fear of what might happen to them. For now, they are just taxed because they are not contributing to the Conclave, but that may change in the future.

Description
This is a commission from Mindtraveller , which creates a world split between five blocs, each of which is inspired by one of the colors in Magic: The Gathering. There had to be some creative liberties here, as forcing some of the color philosophies to work in the context of a modern, industrialized world and not a fantasy setting. If you are interested in your own commission, read this post and send me a private message.

The PoD is the Germans doing far better during the Battle of France than they did IOTL, allowing them to capture a lot of leaders of the OTL French Resistance (including de Gaulle) and negotiate from a position of even greater strength. The Germans agree to keep France whole under Petain’s regime in Paris, but in turn it would have to join the Axis Powers. The French agree, and the British fail to destroy the French fleets, meaning the specter of an Axis invasion of Britain is constant.

The war does end with an Axis defeat, but with the Soviets still fighting in Poland. The war in Europe ended with an alt-Valkyrie in 1943, which succeeds in assassinating Hitler. The new German government negotiates peace with the Allies, which aside from some territorial concessions to Poland leads to a united, neutral Germany and more Western dominance in post-war Europe. A pro-Western European union is formed, which becomes a German-dominated club when Germany joins in the mid-1960s.

In Asia, with the earlier end of the war, both the Soviets and Americans invade Japan before the atomic bomb is ready. Both the Soviets and Americans commit more to the Chinese Civil War, which like OTL Korea leads to direct intervention from both sides. With the development of atomic weapons by the Americans, the Soviets retreat, but the Chinese Communists continue the fight and lead to China being even more devastated than it was IOTL. This leads to the rise of neo-monarchists in China who regard the Republic of China as one of the country’s biggest mistakes. The neo-monarchists won and establish the Bai Dynasty, becoming the third power in the *Cold War.

The early Cold War is far more intense. The Americans, after the brutality of WWII and the Chinese Civil War, retreated inward, and was wary of communist infiltration from a Soviet Union eager to make gains through subterfuge to make up for the loss of China. Anti-communist sentiment is so great that the Americans turn to the polar opposite of communism, espoused by Ayn Rand during her testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee: Objectivism. An alternate Arab-Israeli War leads to greater gains for Israel, comparable to the OTL Six Day War. The alternate Suez Crisis in response ends with a Soviet-backed United Arab Republic rendering the Suez Canal useless by sinking outdated naval vessels within it, throwing a major wrench into global trade and allowing South Africa to become a major economic power.

Long Divided, Must Unite – China under the Bai Dynasty is a rising tiger. The Bai Dynasty chose its name to symbolize both the purity of its cause and its revival from the death of China during the Chinese Civil War. Tapping deep into Chinese tradition, the Bai Dynasty reject all Western ideas, but embrace industrial society. They are not as innovative as the European Technocracy, and technological progress is still stifled by government regulation to make sure that the technology will not disrupt society. China’s population has rebounded, and it is once again the most populous country on the planet, giving it command of the world’s third largest economy, behind the United States and the European Technocracy. This economy is largely limited to its sphere, the Chinese believing that disorderly barbarians have little to offer them. However, given China’s dominance over the Asian continent, the Chinese have plenty of reason to believe this.

The Bai Dynasty is focused on prioritizing two things: order and harmony. The two are interchangeable concepts to the Chinese government; one cannot exist without the other. Tapping into Chinese history and philosophy, the Bai Dynasty easily sold their system as distinctly Chinese, unlike the Western concepts of liberalism and communism. Order and harmony start with the family unit, and on the largest scale, involve the entirety of All Under Heaven. In practice, this means a totalitarian, conformist society under the direct control of the Chinese Emperor. China is Orwellian, and all punishment is collective, with families shamed and punished for the crimes of their relatives because it is the family’s responsibility to ensure harmony on the ground. Families of dissidents are arrested and sent to labor camps deep in the west of the country, working the mineral mines or in sweatshops. The individual’s life means nothing; everything exists for the collective, the entirety of the Chinese nation. If an individual needs to be punished or simply disappeared because they are damaging the collective, then so be it.

The United Arab Jamahiriya, once the United Arab Republic, was founded to fill the retreat of European influence in the Middle East and North Africa. The Jamahiriya forged an alliance with the Soviet Union early on, and with Soviet assistance maintained a coherent Arab state under the leadership of the military. However, despite Soviet attempts to have the Jamahiriya accept communism, it instead forged a third way: vaguely socialist economics, a strong nationalist and militaristic ethos, the fusion of Islamic and Arab identities, and an eventual rejection of both the communist and capitalist worlds. The Jamahiriya became a natural ally of China, which only made it more autocratic. The military dictatorship under Generalissimo Qaddafi persists; his word is law, and the law must be obeyed. The Jamahiriya is expanding into the rest of Africa in a quest for more lands and more glory, although few outside observers would say that there is any glory in the slaughter. Draconian punishments exist for the Jamahiriya’s laws, the brutality of which is part of the appeal. After all, nobody would disobey the Generalissimo if they knew what would happen to them if they did.

The Eurasian Federation is the product of the wide-sweeping reforms that were intended to perfect the Soviet Union, but ended up destroying it. The reformists realized that their single-party Marxist-Leninist state could not be reformed, it had to be remade. This prompted an attempted coup from the KGB, one which was crushed and only justified the de-communization of the country. The Eurasian Federation is territorially identical to the Soviet Union, save for Ukraine and the Baltics. But politically, it tries to move away from the Soviet Union as far as possible. It is a constitutional republic, modeled explicitly off the United States. However, in practice, it is a bureaucratic despotism: the Communist Party has been replaced by the apolitical bureaucracy, which has taken all power for itself and uses elected officials as puppets and scapegoats. Almost everything is handled on the bureaucratic staff level, as sweeping legal authority allows them to write their own rules. Fortunately, the leaders of these bureaucratic agencies are fanatically anti-corruption, so they interpret their rules to the letter. Unfortunately, this means little, if any, leniency. The gulags were closed only for a moment, before being filled by regular criminals and then the victims of anti-corruption campaigns.

Age of Reason – The fall of communism and the retreat of the West left a power vacuum in Europe, one ironically filled by Germany. Of course, the new Germany is a far cry from its Nazi past, or so it would claim. The new Germany dismisses nationalism as irrational tribalism and intends to do away with it through the European Technocracy, a more rational means of organizing humans. The Europeans as a whole reject their past as barbarism, humanity at its absolute worst, and insist they have moved past it. The European Technocracy is the world’s technological powerhouse, using both public and private resources in the relentless pursuit of advancing the human condition through science and technology. No limits are recognized, everything can be sacrificed upon the altar of progress. This technological supremacy allows Europe to punch far above its weight. The Europeans have a near-monopoly on space assets, their stations watching the world, and threatening it if need be.

The European Technocracy is not a democracy, and is rather proud of that fact. Democracy, after all, is the rule of the mob, moved by passions and ignorance. No, the only way to govern people is through the experts. In the case of the Technocracy, the experts are “social scientists.” The leaders of the Technocracy are men who have devoted their lives to the study of the human animal and its nature. The Technocracy issues orders from the top down to the national governments, now just appendages of the Technocracy’s state apparatus. Technocrats are chosen on the basis of hiring or promotion by higher-ranking technocrats; there are stringent anti-nepotism regulations, of course. The Technocracy’s government is a byzantine maze of regulatory boards and unelected commissions dedicated to managing every piece of society in order to maximize utility. Corporations must abide by stringent regulations, and while they are allowed to set prices and wages, they are expected to file for approval for almost anything. This leads to an economy that is smaller than it ought to be, but makes up for it with technology. Automation in Europe is unchallenged in the world, which is leading to an unemployment crisis that the Technocracy is considering solving through “unconventional human resource allocation.” Much of the Technocracy’s money goes to the sciences and academia, leading to a robust educated class; unfortunately, many are overeducated and have trouble finding jobs. The Technocracy does provide a robust welfare system, but the going thought in the Technocracy is that this is a stopgap that will need to be phased out for the sake of austerity.

The Technocracy rejects the old ideas of left and right; the government exists to rationally organize society simply because rational organization is good in and of itself. The Technocracy does not control economies for the proletariat or the nation, it controls because it is the best way to allocate resources. The Technocracy also rejects the “soft sentimentalism” that was popular in Europe in the immediate post-war years. Europe is the best because it is the most rational part of the planet, and it has no responsibility to the rest of the world for its own sake. If the rest of the world wants to emulate Europe, it ought to, but if the rest of the world wants to join the European world, they must abandon their superstitions and prejudices and embrace cold logic.

The Peruvian Combine is a mess of contradictions. It is the most progressive of the South American states, trying to implement the newest of the new from Europe, but much of society is just as agrarian and traditional as ever. The Peruvian leadership is trying to implement change, but outside of the cities, it is incapable of actually affecting it. Indeed, it is afraid of changing things too quickly, and while they want the countryside to move into the industrial age, they are afraid of the disruptive effects this might have. Peru is rich, its natural resources drawing capital, and its friendly government drawing European investment, but this wealth remains in the hands of the urban population. The Peruvian government also wants to leverage its plant and animal resources through genetic engineering, which has led to the propagation of a few entirely new invasive species. However, the Peruvians believe that if that were the case, they are creating a new, better ecology.

The United Kingdom has lost much of its power, but it has never lost its influence. Although now a junior partner to its old German adversary, the British have resisted the siren’s call of political integration into the technocracy. For perfidious Albion has no friends, only interests. For now, the winds blow from Berlin, but this alliance is one of convenience. In the face of a discarded empire, the British have focused on covert warfare. MI6 is the most feared spy agency in the world, being somewhat responsible for the destabilization that has consumed Africa and Latin America. British decolonization was intentionally botched, in order to cause chaos that could later be exploited by the British, but it caused too much chaos and now the African continent is lost forever. British foreign relations are moved by interests, causing division or unity, war or peace, whichever suits Britain at the time. Within the British Isles, the Machiavellian political games make the different parties no different from one another apart from the color ribbon they chose to wear on elections. The British are rather proud of being able to move to a system where ideology does not threaten the direct existence of the United Kingdom. The British have closed themselves to almost all travel, afraid of foreign spies being as effective as their own.

A Man Chooses, A Slave Obeys – The United States has won the Cold War, or so it tells itself. While the Americans have less direct political influence over the world, they have triumphed over the parasites within their own society. America was the land of the free, and now it is free from the mewing and bleating of the weak. The old cancer of altruism, that once threatened to strangle American innovation and industry before and during WWII, is now forever dead. Now, the great will no longer be constrained by the small.

The modern United States is influenced directly by Ayn Rand, hailed as a visionary and the philosophical fountainhead of America. Objectivism, seen as anathema to communism, became popular during the early Cold War, although it took a while for the Americans to accept the atheism and anti-altruism it espoused. However, as the American government became further mired in debt, its politicians caught in corruption and scandals, and as it became involved in more pointless wars in Africa and the Middle East, more and more Americans embraced Objectivism. The counter-culture of the 1960s was an Objectivist movement, marrying the ideas of meritocracy and individuality to free spiritedness and the rejection of old ways of thinking. Politicians moved towards Objectivism in the 1970s and 1980s as a result, leading to a retreat from old Cold War conflicts, and as the “Atlas Generation” took control during the 1990s, America became an expressly Objectivist state.

On paper, the United States is still a constitutional republic. However, the government has deregulated to such a degree that it only serves as a “night watchman;” it is the megacorporations that truly control America. From simply having influence over entire states, to owning entire towns, American megacorporations are the richest in the world, and the American economy remains the largest in the world. Of course, the Objectivist ideology so popular among the Americans means that competition is fierce, meaning that many companies rise and fall within a few years. Of course, the biggest of the big, typically those who benefited from government contracts decades ago, remain in power. Speaking of power, both Democrats and Republicans are officially Objectivist, and most politicians agree that the best way for them to do their jobs is not to do them at all.

After Japan’s defeat, the Americans established a republic modeled after their own. Initially intended to be a model society that all of East Asia can aspire to, Japan became a hive for organized crime. The power vacuum left by the Imperial throne, the military, and almost every other facet of old Japan, was filled by businessmen encouraged by the new American order. Many of the shadiest businesses, with strong connections to the Japanese Yakuza, rose to the top. They bought off politicians, and when that did not work, had them assassinated. The Americans had no issues with this shift, and simply started working with the Yakuza. To the average citizen, Japan is as orderly and lawful as ever, but in truth it is managed by a Yakuza conspiracy. The Yakuza gangs have all declared a truce with one another to guarantee that they can maintain power, focusing instead on bilking foreigners, particularly the Americans. Of course, the unity is not universal. Deep among the Yakuza is the organization calling itself the Imperial Japanese Army. Made up of Japanese neo-imperialists, they have the ultimate goal of throwing the Americans off the Japanese islands, restoring the Imperial throne, reuniting Japan, and rebuilding the Japanese Empire. Among the Yakuza, they are controversial, as some Yakuza leaders are content with the status quo. Some suspect that the IJA is, secretly, funded by the Bai Dynasty.

The African Recovery Corporation was established by American entrepreneurs on the basis of assisting Africa after the chaos of decolonization. In truth, it is the epitome of American abuse in Africa. While many of the American megacorporations operating in the Third World were abusive, the mindset of the ARC’s leadership was always supremacist. They may not believe that American supremacy is inherent, but that only fueled their desire to prove their supremacy in a world operating on the law of the jungle. The ARC only has direct control of a few port cities, which it has developed through mineral wealth, and it has control of mines and a few sites within territory it seized and purchased from local forces. Otherwise, the ARC allows most of their territory to be controlled by brutal warlords, only taking action against those who may pose a threat to their power. The ARC derives its wealth through minerals, but also through the manufacture of “biological feedstock” made from the corpses of the dead locals. Another industry that the ARC participates in is slavery, which is an open secret and tolerated only because the ARC has considerable financial and political influence in the United States. The slavery the ARC practiced ranged from forced labor to prostitution; many powerful people from around the world pay for the ARC’s unique services, and for their discretion. The Americans also outsource interrogation to the ARC.

Liberty or Death – Africa is the new continent of revolution, and of all the five blocs, the weakest. The new South Africa leads this bloc, and it is the product of compromise. South Africa became rich after the blockage of the Suez Canal, but this wealth was concentrated in the hands of the white population. The threat of communist revolution eventually convinced the South African government to abandon the apartheid system and allow the black and colored portions of the population to participate. Combined with the breakdown of social order in most of sub-Saharan Africa, the South Africans reformed to create a libertarian federation of states, one with the eventual goal of spreading freedom throughout the African continent.

The South Africans reject collectivism and hierarchy as concepts; while they are not anarchists, they believe that personal liberty and individual rights are paramount. This has led to policies which try to limit both the power of the state and the power of corporations; the South Africans see little difference between the tyranny of the Bai Dynasty and the tyranny of American megacorporations. The balance they attempt to strike has led to a robust system of regulation and self-regulation, which has unfortunately become the seed for corruption and a government too weak and legalistic to actually enforce the law. However, South Africa is still rich enough that it can afford to keep its poorest fed, even if they are not fed well and money often disappears. Personal freedom being paramount means that raising taxes is difficult, as is trying to rally the country around any sort of common purpose. Factionalism in politics and in everyday life is common. The South Africans support a variety of post-colonial states, most of whom have little control over their countries outside of the cities. The South Africans think this is okay, as tribal leadership closer to the ground is better than centralized control. In the cities, however, chaos often reigns, with criminal organizations ruling the streets.

The Italian League was what emerged from the fall of Mussolini. With the horrible experience of an Allied invasion and the Germans’ betrayal and invasion after Mussolini was captured and capitulated to the Allies, the Italians have grown to distrust the Germans and any sort of centralizing governance at all. The new Italian League, a confederation of different Italian states, is committed to the ideas of progress and freedom. The Italian states are all officially secular, and the Italian population is gradually abandoning Catholicism for atheism. Old traditions are done away with as impediments to Italian liberty and Italy’s future. Nevertheless, the Italians are all proud of their identity as a free people. All of these radical changes are proceeding much faster than the Germans would like, which is just fine, because the Italians have never wanted to take part in the European project. The Italians are dedicated to the idea of using science and technology to solve all of their problems, but instead of having a top-down system like the Europeans, allowing the free marketplace of ideas develop them to benefit the whole of the Italian people. For this reason, copyrights are not respected in Italy, the Italians believing in total freedom of information.

The United Communes of Colombia is perhaps the last bastion of hard ideological anarchism in the world, and is one of the most terrifying places on Earth. The result of a corrupt, American-backed government being destroyed in the fires of revolution by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Colombia was a Soviet client state before the more anarchistic elements of the Colombian Revolution took control. In an attempt to bring the people back to the land and to eventually erode away the state, the anarchists ironically established a highly autocratic state that forced people into collective farms. Economic mismanagement combined with embargoes led to mass starvation, and the erosion of Colombian government control in all places but the cities. The anarchists recontextualized their loss of control as proof that the state is eroding, even as they fight to gain control from the militias, warlords, and criminal organizations that have filled the vacuum. Colombia is so radical that only the distant South Africans back them.

Life Finds a Way – Brazil and the rest of South America were historically part of the American sphere, the local autocracies cooperating with the Americans to fight communism in the region. However, as the Americans grew more abusive, the Brazilians in particular came to reject American capitalism, removed their dictatorship, and sought a new way of organizing society. No fans of communism, technocracy, or absolutism, the Brazilians decided to create their own ideology: ecoism.

The ecoist system has a simple premise: the land and the people are one and must live in harmony. This does not preclude industrialization; in fact, Brazil has one of the most powerful economies in the world. However, that industrialization must be used to benefit the land and the people. In theory, this means a robust system of regulations, checks, and redistribution to ensure that even the poorest Brazilian benefits from the wealth of the elites. In practice, it means the elites have even more control, and allow companies to deforest entire parts of the Amazon so long as they pay into an ecological relief fund which is controlled by corrupt politicians. Competition is stifled because the Brazilian government is wary of over-industrialization, which allows the existing industry to gain a stranglehold over local markets.

The ecoists believe that the land of every nation is that nation’s right, their right to use and their responsibility to nurture. Of course, the Brazilian ecoists are expansive in their beliefs on nationhood, believing the entirety of Latin America is fundamentally of one blood and must be united. As a result, Brazil has the goal of eventually establishing a pan-Latin American state, with itself as the head, naturally. The Brazilians see themselves as the protector of Latin America from predator multinationals and foreign influence generally, which only makes the local corporations much more powerful.

Brazil is a democracy, although many of their allies in Latin America are not. Even though Brazil is democratic, there is no strong opposition to ecoist politics, and radical ideologies such as communism are still banned.

Mexico’s recent history has led it to take a dark turn. As American domination turned more blatantly exploitative, successive Mexican governments faced crises of popularity and, eventually, faced several revolutions and rebellions. The net result is a very weak central government in Mexico City, albeit one now controlled by anti-American politicians, with many different groups controlling the northern deserts. The government, recognizing the limits of its capabilities, allows criminal organizations to act as its unofficial enforcers in the more remote parts of the country, and allows a degree of competition between them for power. However, the government can always find a way to get tax revenue. The government does have a military, although they save it to maintain Mexico’s independence from foreign – particularly American – influence. The Mexican government is focused primarily on independence from America, even if it means the Mexican people themselves have to suffer. They justify the suffering as strengthening the Mexican people, and only in independence can they come to define themselves. Of course, the Mexican power brokers are not a united force in anything but keeping their own power and keeping Mexico independent, so a low-level war goes on between the different gangs and government factions. However, they are smart enough to keep the violence off the streets, where the people can observe it or be harmed by it. In the north, the anarchy is such that many criminal organizations are the government, with the people simply allowing them to operate.

The British made a mess of India as they left. Rather than negotiating with the Indian National Congress or any of the other independence movements, the British simply withdrew, knowing that the subcontinent would fall into chaos. And it did fall into chaos, leading to a country that was in near-total anarchy by the 1970s. It was at this time that the Conclave appeared. A new religious movement that syncretized Hinduism and Buddhism, and took some elements of Christianity and Islam, it became popular as the other religions lost credibility due to their brutal actions against one another during the fall of India. The Conclave gradually became the force that would unite and take control of India as a whole. The religion of the Conclave preaches harmony above all else: harmony with the Earth and one another. According to the Conclave, the Earth itself is divine, and the old gods are a manifestation of this natural divinity. Selflessness is one of the highest virtues, a concept that was gradually abused by the Conclave’s religious leaders. After all, anyone who does not give up their possessions or do as they say is being selfish and not putting the community before everything as they should. The Indians have given up traditional nationalism in favor of the tribe of the Conclave, which is xenophobic to anybody who is not part of the Conclave. This has led to the Conclave becoming very oppressive towards those who refuse to convert, many of whom have fled to neighboring countries for fear of what might happen to them. For now, they are just taxed because they are not contributing to the Conclave, but that may change in the future.