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Description

This is my cover of the Nuclear Dawn game, which was actually one of the inspirations for AAPA. I had this cover planned for years, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it until recently. Many thanks to MrImperatorRoma for helping me brainstorm this, make suggestions, and for making the excellent pixel art on this map.

I decided the PoD for this setting should be changes in the US economy which leads to the Great Recession never happening. This leads to greater confidence in the economy and the powers that be, leading to technological advancements that stack upon one another. China and Europe lead the way in nanotech development, which opens the door to other advances in the sciences. Gene therapy, nanomanufacturing, and the creation of new materials creates what is almost a third Industrial Revolution, what will come to be known as the Golden Age. However, the old political systems entrench themselves. Hillary Clinton becomes the first female President of the United States in 2008, but ultimately her presidency would be defined as “more of the same.” She is succeeded by Mitt Romney in 2016. The European Union further grows and centralizes; nobody ever seriously suggests a Brexit, although Scotland almost left by referendum. China expands its influence through Asia and Africa, although it maintains friendly relations with the West. The Middle East and North Africa never experienced the Arab Spring and the subsequent chaos which came from it, and Gaddafi died having gone a long way to building his own idea of an African union.

The Golden Age is generally defined as the period between 2010 and 2030, when times were good. But even then, the cracks were beginning to show. Automation began to displace manufacturing jobs throughout the world, sending societal shockwaves throughout the world. The problem only grew worse as driving, both for commercial goods and for passengers, became a thing of the past. Anti-globalist and anti-capitalist sentiment grew throughout the West as more people lost their jobs. This married itself with growing nationalist sentiment in the West, a reaction to the steady growth of immigration from non-Western portions of the world and the growing influence of China.[1] Nanotechnology allowed China to maintain its position as the world manufacturing hub, harming the chances of the Third World to take its place. Political extremism and terrorism grew in many Third World countries as a result. Great arcologies rose, particularly in China, India, and the Middle East, where they were used to manage overpopulation, to varying effects.

Geopolitically, things really broke down. The United States invaded Iran in 2021, a nightmare comparable in magnitude to Vietnam, despite the Americans’ technological supremacy. While this did severely weaken American power and image, it was not until American withdrawal in 2031 that the Middle East started to break down. Iran collapsed in civil war, bringing down Iraq, which had to be pacified by private military companies hired by the Americans. Religious extremism and terrorism spread through the Middle East and Africa, spilling over into Europe and Asia. Nanoplagues, weaponized nanomachines developed by the Chinese and Americans, found their way into the hands of terrorists and were deployed, sometimes to horrific effect. In one night in 2032, hundreds of Parisians were infected with a nanomachine-based version of tuberculosis. India and Pakistan get into a war, which sees the destruction of the Pakistani state and major social unrest in victorious India. The nations of the Arabian Peninsula broke away from the American sphere and formed their own development bloc. The peaceful growth of Chinese influence gradually grew to be violent, as the honeymoon period in Africa ended and armed uprisings began against Chinese state-run corporations and their armed forces. The DPRK fell and became part of China, being redeveloped along the lines of the new China. In Europe, a revitalized Russian Federation faced off against a militarized European Union. A similar situation arose between China and a remilitarizing Japan, with the latter leveraging its considerable technological power and growing influence over Asian states fearful of Chinese expansionism.

During the late 2030s, economic pressures from the tail end of the Golden Age led to major geopolitical issues. The now totally anti-globalist left came to dominate American politics, marrying economic nationalism with more common left-wing economic ideas. In an attempt to revitalize American manufacturing, they imposed massive tariffs on China, a policy which later evolved into a blockade of China, ostensibly in response to Chinese actions in Africa. The Third World War started on January 22, 2040, between Chinese and American forces. The war leads to the defeat of local American and Japanese naval forces, leading to the invasion of Japan.

The war quickly escalated. In 2041, the Russians invaded Europe, forcing America to split its forces. Nevertheless, the Chinese were beginning to lose against American and Japanese opposition on the islands. In a gambit to further hamper the American war effort, the Chinese unleashed the Plague of Iron, the first one deployed by a major power. The Chinese intended for the attack to seem like an accident or an act of terror by one of the many anti-government groups in the United States, but the American government traced the origin of the plague to China. The Plague of Iron killed 29 million Americans before it was stopped.

The United States reacted with a limited nuclear strike. America’s strike against China killed only sixty million people; while a horrifically large number, it was still a minority of the Chinese population. The People’s Republic survived the strike, allowing it to maintain order in China proper. However, the Chinese Communist Party was not unscathed. The tattered remnants of the Chinese state flocked under the banner of General Jiang Di Zhai, one of the highest ranking members of the People’s Liberation Army in China.

To the shock of many, however, the Chinese continued the fight. The lesson from America’s strike was that the age of nuclear annihilation was over. Chinese defenses took down a large number of American nukes, and the robustness of the Chinese state itself allowed it to survive the rest. It became clear to the world that mutually assured destruction was over, emboldening the Russians in their advance through Europe. Russia manages to seize Europe up to the French borders, and demands surrender from the Western alliance. The Americans shifted their focus to that war, signing a peace treaty with China which split Japan in two.[2] The Americans resorted to new technology, particularly by using the then-experimental nanotech singularity gateways to infiltrate Russian military installations. By 2042, much of the Russian high command was dead.

The war turned against the Russians. American forces poured into Europe and pushed them back to Poland. Russian port towns were invaded by American forces. The technological inferiority of the Russian military began to really show, and soon it became impossible for the Russians to win any battles. To make matters worse, nanoplagues – some of whih were deployed by the Russians in rearguard actions – were devastating Russia’s civilian population. Fearing defeat, the Russians launched their outdated, but massive, nuclear arsenal against both their Western foes and the Chinese, whom they did not want inheriting their power and whom they deeply distrusted. The Americans and Chinese launched their retaliatory strikes, ending the first phase of World War III.

The Nuclear Dawn happened on December 1, 2045, and proved previous assumptions wrong. Modern missile defenses may be able to stop a limited nuclear strike, but if tens of thousands of warheads were launched all at once, then it was impossible to stop. Cities around the world went up in smoke. Infrastructure collapsed. In the former warzones in Europe, chaos reigned. Even in unstable areas uninvolved with the struggle, states collapsed. India was busy fighting a civil war caused by the economic disruptions of automation and World War III, and the war went nuclear soon after the Nuclear Dawn. Under the sheer weight of the nuclear counterattack, the Russian state was vaporized, its remaining military assets going rogue and holding onto the territories they conquered. However, the highly militarized governments of the West and China were largely able to keep some modicum of control over their territory. While civilian power structures were obliterated in the United States and Western Europe, their military commands were safe, as they were far from major population centers during the Nuclear Dawn. They reorganized themselves under the Consortium of Free States. In China, the CCP’s remnants were finally erased in a coup launched by General Jiang Di Zhai, leading to the formation of the People’s Empire.

The Consortium of Free States was formed from the remnants of NATO and the European Union, two institutions which did not survive the Nuclear Dawn. The Consortium is ostensibly a military alliance between the military governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. All of these governments are military dictatorships or oligarchies by nature, although they all claim to be emergency governments which will eventually relinquish their powers once World War III is over and public order is restored everywhere. In truth, the Consortium itself acts as a more-or-less unified military organization under the command of Admiral Arnold H. Westfall. Westfall has direct control over most of the Consortium’s assets and can directly order the military governments of the Consortium. The Consortium’s primary means of offense is the Asymmetrical Warfare Detachment, a unified military body which has tens of thousands of men under its command. On the ground, the Consortium’s military governments rely on a menagerie of organizations with variable loyalty to the Consortium. Normally, military and civilian authorities have been placed under the control of the local government and work together to keep public order, but sometimes the Consortium has to rely on private entities and even criminal organizations that are willing to pledge their loyalty. Some regions of the world, such as the Low Countries, were so devastated by the Nuclear Dawn that they are directly under Consortium military administration. Others, like Equatorial Guinea, were taken over by the Consortium to secure resources. The Consortium also has non-member allies scattered around the world, such as the military junta in Spain or the Sikh theocracy in Khalistan.

The People’s Empire is not governed under a communist ideology, even though it uses communist symbolism. It is governed under an ideology of Jiang Di Zhai’s manufacture, which he claims is the natural evolution of socialism for the modern age. Rather than claiming to eventually create a perfectly equal society with no state, what has been termed by the People’s Empire as “Jiang Di Zhai Thought” codifies the hierarchies which formed in historical communist states. Jiang Di Zhai Thought calls for a system of class collaboration and a strong sense of noblesse oblige, where a codified elite manage the affairs of state for the benefit of every strata of society. This system calls for a strict hierarchy, with Jiang Di Zhai as Emperor at the very pinnacle of society. In practice, the People’s Empire is managed as a “survival dictatorship,” an empire held together by loyal cadres of survivors of the Third World War. Russia, under the control of former Major General Anatoly Daristov, has become part of the People’s Empire through a power-sharing agreement. Daristov, a man who had close ties to China prior to World War III, was managing the Russian Federation’s armies in Siberia and refused to attack China, against orders from the remains of the Russian government. Daristov assumed control of eastern Russia, and rather than directly fighting the invasion of the new People’s Empire, legally surrendered its sovereignty to the People’s Empire. However, Daristov managed to secure his role as a leader in Russia, albeit in the Emperor’s name. He also got Chinese support to defeat his Western rivals and begin the long war to reconquer the shattered Russian Federation.

Some groups anticipated the Nuclear Dawn, and sought to profit from it. National governments, NGOs, corporate entities and independently wealthy businessmen saw that the Golden Age was leading to an age of strife, and prepared accordingly. Through clandestine and elite networks, these like-minded people found one another and shared their considerable resources with one goal in mind: to survive the inevitable collapse of the Golden Age, and to bring forth a Golden Tomorrow. Believing the Western and Eastern worlds too set in their ways, Golden Tomorrow found fertile ground in the chaotic Middle East and South Asia. Many of the wealthiest and most influential members of Golden Tomorrow made their fortunes in oil, and knew that such fortune is fleeting. They supported the creation of vast arcologies and became hubs for technological development. Iraq, once devastated by invasion and civil war, was rebuilt under the auspices of a new, secular Arab government, which had a close relationship with the private military companies that were once hired by the Americans to keep the peace. Iraq was once again the center of progress in the Middle East, eventually absorbing Syria. While the Middle East was not unscathed by the Nuclear Dawn – particularly by Russia’s nuclear attack against Israel, and Israel’s nuclear attack against its historical enemies in the Middle East – Arabia did manage to maintain a large degree of sanity. While the House of Saud was destroyed by Israeli missiles, and thus caused the collapse of the Saudi state, most Arabian cities remained intact. Post-nuclear chaos, such as the failure of desalination plants, caused more instability, but the coastal arcologies survived. India was the worst off, but even then, some arcologies survived and created a post-Indian Civil War government. Some governments which had aligned completely with Golden Tomorrow’s goals, such as Turkey and Thailand, escaped the Nuclear Dawn completely unscathed. The Golden Tomorrow governments are varied in form, but substantively they are all plutocracies run by the old elites who forged the Golden Tomorrow movement. They attract more elites from the ruined remnants of the West and the East, and both the Consortium and the Empire eye their Golden Age technology. However, the Golden Tomorrow’s forces are formidable enough to guarantee their safety.

Two major terrorist actors stand out with the breadth and power of their activities: the Abyad Hashishim and the Knights of Christ. The Abyad Hashishim believe that their leader is a God-King, the Mahdi, the earthly incarnation of Allah. They believe they have walked the "thrice enlightened path" since the 1st century, while regular Muslims have only walked a "singly enlightened path" since the 9th century. Despite this heresy, the Abyad Hashishim is starting to gain influence in displaced Islamic communities, owing to their charity work and other social programs. The Abyad Hashishim somehow have access to resources and technology that should be inaccessible to a terrorist organization ostensibly based in the ruins of Iran, which the Consortium alleges is the result of Imperial support. The Abyad Hashishim's preferred targets are in the Consortium, such as their daring raid allowing numerous Consortium enemies to escape the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but the Abyad Hashishim have also attacked Imperial camps in Xinjiang.[3] But the Abyad Hashishim themselves claim to have served an unbroken succession of God-Kings since antiquity, and amassed the resources of an assassin's guild since then. Some conspiracy theorists believe that the Abyad Hashishim serve an ancient conspiracy to remake the world in their image, and orchestrated the Nuclear Dawn to allow this.

The Knights of Christ are an offshoot of the Church of Christ Embattled, a radical Protestant sect which holds that the world is in the grip of the End Times and all Christians must fight heresy and apostasy. Although American in origin, the Knights of Christ took root among the underground Christian movement in China, which has experienced extreme repression with the rise of the Empire. The Knights of Christ believe that the People's Empire, and its predecessor states, are the new Babylon, with Jiang Di Zhai the Antichrist of prophecy. As a result, the Knights of Christ have received support from the Consortium, and they use Consortium tech to bomb propaganda centers, government facilities, and mass transit systems. The Consortium assassinates the occasional "apostate" political or academic leader in the Consortium, many of which were critics of the Consortium's policies.

Some nations survived the Nuclear Dawn because they were not targeted by one side or the other. How they approached the post-war world differs. Switzerland and Sweden became bunker nations, surrounded by a Consortium which is not as interested in respecting neutrality as the old Western institutions. While the Swedes have merely suspended their civilian government in the interim, Switzerland moved most of its civilian population into underground bunkers, convincing them that the world is in a worse state than it is actually in. The Swiss government does this primarily because it understands that the Nuclear Dawn is not likely to be the first disaster to befall mankind in the near future. In the Balkans, ultranationalist Hungary and Bulgaria, both allies of Russia during the first phase of WWIII, cling on to their empires, hoping that the Consortium will busy themselves fighting Imperial influence.

Nanoplagues continue to threaten the world. Like biological diseases, nanoplagues tend to be extremely deadly, which is to the long-term advantage of humanity, as the nanoplague cannot survive long without a host. This is done by design, as nanoplague designers understand that a nanomachine which could survive independently without a host would be an existential threat. However, some nanoplagues have persisted, mostly because they were not designed as biological weapons, but rather for other purposes. A major example is the Amazonian Nanoplague. Designed to restore deforested areas of the Amazon, the Amazonian Nanoplague fell out of the control of the Brazilian government after the Nuclear Dawn, and the nanites have since gone out of control. The nanites go about their work, converting farmland, deserts and cities, and making no distinctions between flora and fauna, to recreate the Amazon. Entire water systems are diverted to help this task, mostly through the control of air currents, depriving surrounding areas of water and causing major droughts. The Consortium has allocated some resources to fighting the spread of the Amazonian Nanoplague, but not nearly enough to stop it. After all, it is not the Consortium’s primary interest.

The African continent is doing well, or poorly, depending on the region. In the south, South Africa fell apart, but mostly because it was being invaded by the Mutapa. Led by the ruthless General Matongo – a disciple of the Chinese – the Mutapans seek to emulate what the People’s Empire has done in Asia: recreate an ancient empire, for the glory of socialism. But while the People’s Empire resembles the Mongol Empire of old, Matongo has evoked the image of the ancient Mutapa Empire, and he seeks to expand it beyond its historical borders. An ardent Afrocentric nationalist, Matongo’s regime nevertheless has earned the ire of most Africans, mostly because it acts much like the Chinese did in the past, only moreso. To the north, Katanga is under the control of the creatively-named Katanga Incorporated, a privatized state which was run for the benefit of Western mining conglomerates before the Nuclear Dawn forced it to stand on its own. Using their remaining Golden Age technology, they’ve been able to keep the Mutapans and their conscripts at bay.

To the north, Nigeria manages the West African Energy Commission, the only surviving organ of ECOWAS. Taking advantage of the massive solar farms manufactured in the Sahel, Nigeria is a major energy exporter to Africa and Europe. The Nigerians even maintain some of the last remaining satellite communication systems in orbit, and rent these services out to the Consortium and the Empire. Blue, red, their money’s all green in West Africa. To the furthest north, Gaddafi’s dream is continuing to grow. Libya positioned itself as a regional power in the 2010s, steadily growing in influence in North Africa as the decades wore on. Libya managed to survive Gaddafi’s death, as did his achievements. The country is now one of the most prosperous remaining in the world, and certainly the most prosperous in the African continent. Libya’s influence is mostly powered by Golden Age technology that, while second-rate prior to the Nuclear Dawn, is very potent now.

The world is left in the ashes of the Nuclear Dawn. The Consortium and the Empire fight over the scraps of the Golden Age, while the Golden Tomorrow prepares their extremely advanced, if numerically disadvantaged forces. The Consortium and the Empire make steady advances in expanding their influence, but both empires are soon reaching the limits of their capabilities. Space travel is no longer a possibility: launch platforms were destroyed during the Nuclear Dawn, and so many satellites were destroyed during WWIII that Earth’s orbit is littered with deadly orbiting debris. Most worrying of all, there are still unused nuclear weapons and nanoplagues that the Consortium and Empire may use to end WWIII – and what is left of human civilization.

[1] Imagine if the Tea Party and OWS never existed, and then emerged as one movement down the line.

[2] The Americans realized that the only way to defeat China would be to unleash a nanoplague that would be impossible to contain, or to invade mainland China. Neither option was acceptable.

[3] It should be noted that this operation was likely conducted to help specific Abyad Hashishim members escape, as a specific set of prisoners were allowed to board the Hashishim's transports, while the rest of the prisoners were left to wander the desert before dying of exposure or being recaptured by Imperial forces.

Description

This is my cover of the Nuclear Dawn game, which was actually one of the inspirations for AAPA. I had this cover planned for years, but haven’t gotten around to finishing it until recently. Many thanks to MrImperatorRoma for helping me brainstorm this, make suggestions, and for making the excellent pixel art on this map.

I decided the PoD for this setting should be changes in the US economy which leads to the Great Recession never happening. This leads to greater confidence in the economy and the powers that be, leading to technological advancements that stack upon one another. China and Europe lead the way in nanotech development, which opens the door to other advances in the sciences. Gene therapy, nanomanufacturing, and the creation of new materials creates what is almost a third Industrial Revolution, what will come to be known as the Golden Age. However, the old political systems entrench themselves. Hillary Clinton becomes the first female President of the United States in 2008, but ultimately her presidency would be defined as “more of the same.” She is succeeded by Mitt Romney in 2016. The European Union further grows and centralizes; nobody ever seriously suggests a Brexit, although Scotland almost left by referendum. China expands its influence through Asia and Africa, although it maintains friendly relations with the West. The Middle East and North Africa never experienced the Arab Spring and the subsequent chaos which came from it, and Gaddafi died having gone a long way to building his own idea of an African union.

The Golden Age is generally defined as the period between 2010 and 2030, when times were good. But even then, the cracks were beginning to show. Automation began to displace manufacturing jobs throughout the world, sending societal shockwaves throughout the world. The problem only grew worse as driving, both for commercial goods and for passengers, became a thing of the past. Anti-globalist and anti-capitalist sentiment grew throughout the West as more people lost their jobs. This married itself with growing nationalist sentiment in the West, a reaction to the steady growth of immigration from non-Western portions of the world and the growing influence of China.[1] Nanotechnology allowed China to maintain its position as the world manufacturing hub, harming the chances of the Third World to take its place. Political extremism and terrorism grew in many Third World countries as a result. Great arcologies rose, particularly in China, India, and the Middle East, where they were used to manage overpopulation, to varying effects.

Geopolitically, things really broke down. The United States invaded Iran in 2021, a nightmare comparable in magnitude to Vietnam, despite the Americans’ technological supremacy. While this did severely weaken American power and image, it was not until American withdrawal in 2031 that the Middle East started to break down. Iran collapsed in civil war, bringing down Iraq, which had to be pacified by private military companies hired by the Americans. Religious extremism and terrorism spread through the Middle East and Africa, spilling over into Europe and Asia. Nanoplagues, weaponized nanomachines developed by the Chinese and Americans, found their way into the hands of terrorists and were deployed, sometimes to horrific effect. In one night in 2032, hundreds of Parisians were infected with a nanomachine-based version of tuberculosis. India and Pakistan get into a war, which sees the destruction of the Pakistani state and major social unrest in victorious India. The nations of the Arabian Peninsula broke away from the American sphere and formed their own development bloc. The peaceful growth of Chinese influence gradually grew to be violent, as the honeymoon period in Africa ended and armed uprisings began against Chinese state-run corporations and their armed forces. The DPRK fell and became part of China, being redeveloped along the lines of the new China. In Europe, a revitalized Russian Federation faced off against a militarized European Union. A similar situation arose between China and a remilitarizing Japan, with the latter leveraging its considerable technological power and growing influence over Asian states fearful of Chinese expansionism.

During the late 2030s, economic pressures from the tail end of the Golden Age led to major geopolitical issues. The now totally anti-globalist left came to dominate American politics, marrying economic nationalism with more common left-wing economic ideas. In an attempt to revitalize American manufacturing, they imposed massive tariffs on China, a policy which later evolved into a blockade of China, ostensibly in response to Chinese actions in Africa. The Third World War started on January 22, 2040, between Chinese and American forces. The war leads to the defeat of local American and Japanese naval forces, leading to the invasion of Japan.

The war quickly escalated. In 2041, the Russians invaded Europe, forcing America to split its forces. Nevertheless, the Chinese were beginning to lose against American and Japanese opposition on the islands. In a gambit to further hamper the American war effort, the Chinese unleashed the Plague of Iron, the first one deployed by a major power. The Chinese intended for the attack to seem like an accident or an act of terror by one of the many anti-government groups in the United States, but the American government traced the origin of the plague to China. The Plague of Iron killed 29 million Americans before it was stopped.

The United States reacted with a limited nuclear strike. America’s strike against China killed only sixty million people; while a horrifically large number, it was still a minority of the Chinese population. The People’s Republic survived the strike, allowing it to maintain order in China proper. However, the Chinese Communist Party was not unscathed. The tattered remnants of the Chinese state flocked under the banner of General Jiang Di Zhai, one of the highest ranking members of the People’s Liberation Army in China.

To the shock of many, however, the Chinese continued the fight. The lesson from America’s strike was that the age of nuclear annihilation was over. Chinese defenses took down a large number of American nukes, and the robustness of the Chinese state itself allowed it to survive the rest. It became clear to the world that mutually assured destruction was over, emboldening the Russians in their advance through Europe. Russia manages to seize Europe up to the French borders, and demands surrender from the Western alliance. The Americans shifted their focus to that war, signing a peace treaty with China which split Japan in two.[2] The Americans resorted to new technology, particularly by using the then-experimental nanotech singularity gateways to infiltrate Russian military installations. By 2042, much of the Russian high command was dead.

The war turned against the Russians. American forces poured into Europe and pushed them back to Poland. Russian port towns were invaded by American forces. The technological inferiority of the Russian military began to really show, and soon it became impossible for the Russians to win any battles. To make matters worse, nanoplagues – some of whih were deployed by the Russians in rearguard actions – were devastating Russia’s civilian population. Fearing defeat, the Russians launched their outdated, but massive, nuclear arsenal against both their Western foes and the Chinese, whom they did not want inheriting their power and whom they deeply distrusted. The Americans and Chinese launched their retaliatory strikes, ending the first phase of World War III.

The Nuclear Dawn happened on December 1, 2045, and proved previous assumptions wrong. Modern missile defenses may be able to stop a limited nuclear strike, but if tens of thousands of warheads were launched all at once, then it was impossible to stop. Cities around the world went up in smoke. Infrastructure collapsed. In the former warzones in Europe, chaos reigned. Even in unstable areas uninvolved with the struggle, states collapsed. India was busy fighting a civil war caused by the economic disruptions of automation and World War III, and the war went nuclear soon after the Nuclear Dawn. Under the sheer weight of the nuclear counterattack, the Russian state was vaporized, its remaining military assets going rogue and holding onto the territories they conquered. However, the highly militarized governments of the West and China were largely able to keep some modicum of control over their territory. While civilian power structures were obliterated in the United States and Western Europe, their military commands were safe, as they were far from major population centers during the Nuclear Dawn. They reorganized themselves under the Consortium of Free States. In China, the CCP’s remnants were finally erased in a coup launched by General Jiang Di Zhai, leading to the formation of the People’s Empire.

The Consortium of Free States was formed from the remnants of NATO and the European Union, two institutions which did not survive the Nuclear Dawn. The Consortium is ostensibly a military alliance between the military governments of the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Finland. All of these governments are military dictatorships or oligarchies by nature, although they all claim to be emergency governments which will eventually relinquish their powers once World War III is over and public order is restored everywhere. In truth, the Consortium itself acts as a more-or-less unified military organization under the command of Admiral Arnold H. Westfall. Westfall has direct control over most of the Consortium’s assets and can directly order the military governments of the Consortium. The Consortium’s primary means of offense is the Asymmetrical Warfare Detachment, a unified military body which has tens of thousands of men under its command. On the ground, the Consortium’s military governments rely on a menagerie of organizations with variable loyalty to the Consortium. Normally, military and civilian authorities have been placed under the control of the local government and work together to keep public order, but sometimes the Consortium has to rely on private entities and even criminal organizations that are willing to pledge their loyalty. Some regions of the world, such as the Low Countries, were so devastated by the Nuclear Dawn that they are directly under Consortium military administration. Others, like Equatorial Guinea, were taken over by the Consortium to secure resources. The Consortium also has non-member allies scattered around the world, such as the military junta in Spain or the Sikh theocracy in Khalistan.

The People’s Empire is not governed under a communist ideology, even though it uses communist symbolism. It is governed under an ideology of Jiang Di Zhai’s manufacture, which he claims is the natural evolution of socialism for the modern age. Rather than claiming to eventually create a perfectly equal society with no state, what has been termed by the People’s Empire as “Jiang Di Zhai Thought” codifies the hierarchies which formed in historical communist states. Jiang Di Zhai Thought calls for a system of class collaboration and a strong sense of noblesse oblige, where a codified elite manage the affairs of state for the benefit of every strata of society. This system calls for a strict hierarchy, with Jiang Di Zhai as Emperor at the very pinnacle of society. In practice, the People’s Empire is managed as a “survival dictatorship,” an empire held together by loyal cadres of survivors of the Third World War. Russia, under the control of former Major General Anatoly Daristov, has become part of the People’s Empire through a power-sharing agreement. Daristov, a man who had close ties to China prior to World War III, was managing the Russian Federation’s armies in Siberia and refused to attack China, against orders from the remains of the Russian government. Daristov assumed control of eastern Russia, and rather than directly fighting the invasion of the new People’s Empire, legally surrendered its sovereignty to the People’s Empire. However, Daristov managed to secure his role as a leader in Russia, albeit in the Emperor’s name. He also got Chinese support to defeat his Western rivals and begin the long war to reconquer the shattered Russian Federation.

Some groups anticipated the Nuclear Dawn, and sought to profit from it. National governments, NGOs, corporate entities and independently wealthy businessmen saw that the Golden Age was leading to an age of strife, and prepared accordingly. Through clandestine and elite networks, these like-minded people found one another and shared their considerable resources with one goal in mind: to survive the inevitable collapse of the Golden Age, and to bring forth a Golden Tomorrow. Believing the Western and Eastern worlds too set in their ways, Golden Tomorrow found fertile ground in the chaotic Middle East and South Asia. Many of the wealthiest and most influential members of Golden Tomorrow made their fortunes in oil, and knew that such fortune is fleeting. They supported the creation of vast arcologies and became hubs for technological development. Iraq, once devastated by invasion and civil war, was rebuilt under the auspices of a new, secular Arab government, which had a close relationship with the private military companies that were once hired by the Americans to keep the peace. Iraq was once again the center of progress in the Middle East, eventually absorbing Syria. While the Middle East was not unscathed by the Nuclear Dawn – particularly by Russia’s nuclear attack against Israel, and Israel’s nuclear attack against its historical enemies in the Middle East – Arabia did manage to maintain a large degree of sanity. While the House of Saud was destroyed by Israeli missiles, and thus caused the collapse of the Saudi state, most Arabian cities remained intact. Post-nuclear chaos, such as the failure of desalination plants, caused more instability, but the coastal arcologies survived. India was the worst off, but even then, some arcologies survived and created a post-Indian Civil War government. Some governments which had aligned completely with Golden Tomorrow’s goals, such as Turkey and Thailand, escaped the Nuclear Dawn completely unscathed. The Golden Tomorrow governments are varied in form, but substantively they are all plutocracies run by the old elites who forged the Golden Tomorrow movement. They attract more elites from the ruined remnants of the West and the East, and both the Consortium and the Empire eye their Golden Age technology. However, the Golden Tomorrow’s forces are formidable enough to guarantee their safety.

Two major terrorist actors stand out with the breadth and power of their activities: the Abyad Hashishim and the Knights of Christ. The Abyad Hashishim believe that their leader is a God-King, the Mahdi, the earthly incarnation of Allah. They believe they have walked the "thrice enlightened path" since the 1st century, while regular Muslims have only walked a "singly enlightened path" since the 9th century. Despite this heresy, the Abyad Hashishim is starting to gain influence in displaced Islamic communities, owing to their charity work and other social programs. The Abyad Hashishim somehow have access to resources and technology that should be inaccessible to a terrorist organization ostensibly based in the ruins of Iran, which the Consortium alleges is the result of Imperial support. The Abyad Hashishim's preferred targets are in the Consortium, such as their daring raid allowing numerous Consortium enemies to escape the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, but the Abyad Hashishim have also attacked Imperial camps in Xinjiang.[3] But the Abyad Hashishim themselves claim to have served an unbroken succession of God-Kings since antiquity, and amassed the resources of an assassin's guild since then. Some conspiracy theorists believe that the Abyad Hashishim serve an ancient conspiracy to remake the world in their image, and orchestrated the Nuclear Dawn to allow this.

The Knights of Christ are an offshoot of the Church of Christ Embattled, a radical Protestant sect which holds that the world is in the grip of the End Times and all Christians must fight heresy and apostasy. Although American in origin, the Knights of Christ took root among the underground Christian movement in China, which has experienced extreme repression with the rise of the Empire. The Knights of Christ believe that the People's Empire, and its predecessor states, are the new Babylon, with Jiang Di Zhai the Antichrist of prophecy. As a result, the Knights of Christ have received support from the Consortium, and they use Consortium tech to bomb propaganda centers, government facilities, and mass transit systems. The Consortium assassinates the occasional "apostate" political or academic leader in the Consortium, many of which were critics of the Consortium's policies.

Some nations survived the Nuclear Dawn because they were not targeted by one side or the other. How they approached the post-war world differs. Switzerland and Sweden became bunker nations, surrounded by a Consortium which is not as interested in respecting neutrality as the old Western institutions. While the Swedes have merely suspended their civilian government in the interim, Switzerland moved most of its civilian population into underground bunkers, convincing them that the world is in a worse state than it is actually in. The Swiss government does this primarily because it understands that the Nuclear Dawn is not likely to be the first disaster to befall mankind in the near future. In the Balkans, ultranationalist Hungary and Bulgaria, both allies of Russia during the first phase of WWIII, cling on to their empires, hoping that the Consortium will busy themselves fighting Imperial influence.

Nanoplagues continue to threaten the world. Like biological diseases, nanoplagues tend to be extremely deadly, which is to the long-term advantage of humanity, as the nanoplague cannot survive long without a host. This is done by design, as nanoplague designers understand that a nanomachine which could survive independently without a host would be an existential threat. However, some nanoplagues have persisted, mostly because they were not designed as biological weapons, but rather for other purposes. A major example is the Amazonian Nanoplague. Designed to restore deforested areas of the Amazon, the Amazonian Nanoplague fell out of the control of the Brazilian government after the Nuclear Dawn, and the nanites have since gone out of control. The nanites go about their work, converting farmland, deserts and cities, and making no distinctions between flora and fauna, to recreate the Amazon. Entire water systems are diverted to help this task, mostly through the control of air currents, depriving surrounding areas of water and causing major droughts. The Consortium has allocated some resources to fighting the spread of the Amazonian Nanoplague, but not nearly enough to stop it. After all, it is not the Consortium’s primary interest.

The African continent is doing well, or poorly, depending on the region. In the south, South Africa fell apart, but mostly because it was being invaded by the Mutapa. Led by the ruthless General Matongo – a disciple of the Chinese – the Mutapans seek to emulate what the People’s Empire has done in Asia: recreate an ancient empire, for the glory of socialism. But while the People’s Empire resembles the Mongol Empire of old, Matongo has evoked the image of the ancient Mutapa Empire, and he seeks to expand it beyond its historical borders. An ardent Afrocentric nationalist, Matongo’s regime nevertheless has earned the ire of most Africans, mostly because it acts much like the Chinese did in the past, only moreso. To the north, Katanga is under the control of the creatively-named Katanga Incorporated, a privatized state which was run for the benefit of Western mining conglomerates before the Nuclear Dawn forced it to stand on its own. Using their remaining Golden Age technology, they’ve been able to keep the Mutapans and their conscripts at bay.

To the north, Nigeria manages the West African Energy Commission, the only surviving organ of ECOWAS. Taking advantage of the massive solar farms manufactured in the Sahel, Nigeria is a major energy exporter to Africa and Europe. The Nigerians even maintain some of the last remaining satellite communication systems in orbit, and rent these services out to the Consortium and the Empire. Blue, red, their money’s all green in West Africa. To the furthest north, Gaddafi’s dream is continuing to grow. Libya positioned itself as a regional power in the 2010s, steadily growing in influence in North Africa as the decades wore on. Libya managed to survive Gaddafi’s death, as did his achievements. The country is now one of the most prosperous remaining in the world, and certainly the most prosperous in the African continent. Libya’s influence is mostly powered by Golden Age technology that, while second-rate prior to the Nuclear Dawn, is very potent now.

The world is left in the ashes of the Nuclear Dawn. The Consortium and the Empire fight over the scraps of the Golden Age, while the Golden Tomorrow prepares their extremely advanced, if numerically disadvantaged forces. The Consortium and the Empire make steady advances in expanding their influence, but both empires are soon reaching the limits of their capabilities. Space travel is no longer a possibility: launch platforms were destroyed during the Nuclear Dawn, and so many satellites were destroyed during WWIII that Earth’s orbit is littered with deadly orbiting debris. Most worrying of all, there are still unused nuclear weapons and nanoplagues that the Consortium and Empire may use to end WWIII – and what is left of human civilization.

[1] Imagine if the Tea Party and OWS never existed, and then emerged as one movement down the line.

[2] The Americans realized that the only way to defeat China would be to unleash a nanoplague that would be impossible to contain, or to invade mainland China. Neither option was acceptable.

[3] It should be noted that this operation was likely conducted to help specific Abyad Hashishim members escape, as a specific set of prisoners were allowed to board the Hashishim's transports, while the rest of the prisoners were left to wander the desert before dying of exposure or being recaptured by Imperial forces.