[History 101; 2030-2031] The Birth of the UCAS (and other nations), and the Beginning of the EuroWars
In the last two lessons we only covered a single year, but what a year it was. The Crash of '29 and Echo Mirage and The Crash of '29 and the Rest of the World are the entries, read up and enjoy...
##2030; Fallout of the Crash, Birth of the UCAS, Brittany, and Asamando
After more than two decades of service, and one brief stint of retirement, Old Nick Aurelius finally stepped down as the CEO of Ares Macrotechnology on February 4^th of this year. Old Nick was replaced by his son, Young Nick Aurelius, who remained the CEO and Chairman of the board for a few short years before losing that position in the ever famous Nanosecond Buyout. But that's still to come.
On February 22^nd, the Big Sur Coast in California was poisoned by agribusinesses based around Monterrey and Salinas. For years this agribusinesses had purchased up all of the arable farmland in that region, and over the years made it barren with their chemicals. These chemicals had seeped into the water table, and out to sea. Once there, the "infection" spread throughout the Coast. Just shortly after this incident in 2030 the agribusinesses, as well as the Californian government, pulled out of of the northern coast of Big Sur, effectively dooming the are to become a toxic disaster.
Gustavo Carvalho founded Aegis Cognito (AG) in Portugal. Aegis Cognit's early mission statement was to recover information lost in the Crash of '29. Carvalho was able to utilize Portugal's computer literate (but unemployed) population and the newest in Matrix systems to achieve that goal. AG set up shop in Portugal's National Archives (Torro de Tombro) on March 11^th, and began about the task of cleaning up the Portuguese governments decimated records. AG branched out a few years later, and eventually became one of the world's largest (and best) private intelligence gathering services .
Back across the pond, in Chicago, entrepreneur and CEO of Truman Technologies, Daniel Truman established an "artists colony" with his now famous Southside Revitalization Project. The veil was officially lifted on this project on April 8^th. These writers, painters, and other visual medium workers thrived under Truman's leadership. Before long other corporations began to copy his techniques.
Since the Crash of '29, Campana & Carrindum Technical Industries had loudly and publicly accused Aztechnology of engineering and orchestrating the Crash that wiped out all of C&CTI's valuable information. They even took their accusations a step further and began a campaign of retaliatory assaults against the megacorp. Aztechnology, of course, reacted accordingly.
The United Corporate Court (UCC) first convened on April 30^th to help do just that. Made up of the Metroplex's biggest corporations, the UCC was created to be a sort of advisory board to the Governor, and to help ensure that "mistakes like [C&CTI & Aztechnology's feud] don't happen again." They resolved the conflict between the two corporations, but not before Aztechnology was able to effectively ending C&CTI.
On May 16^th, the High Council of Brittany is established by charismatic leader High Druid Gwendal Le Pellec in order to govern the formerly French Territory. The French government turned the region over to the Druidic Movement for observation and research purposes. The hope was that the Druids would be able to identify, and dissipate the Mists. Led by the High Council of Brittany, the New Druidic Movement stayed in the region long enough to see their dreams come true. But that's another story.
By this point in time, the United States had been getting the short end of the stick for nearly three decades. The Resource Rush, the Great Ghost War, the Treaty of Denver, and VITAS killing a third of it's population the first time (and another quarter of the remainder the second time around) had all came and went, but it seemed like the Crash of '29 was the death knell of the US. It would have it hadn't have been for President Andrew McAlister of the US and Canadian Prime Minister Harold Frazier.
These two nations had been in closed door discussions for months during the Crash, and on October 15^th the world watched the fruit of those meetings come to pass. And that was the merger of the United States of America (everything left after the Treaty of Denver that is) and Canada into the United Canadian and American States (UCAS). The UCAS was born, and neo-anarchists everywhere wept at the squandered opportunity.
Over in Africa, a group of sasabonsam (a localized ghoul variant) gathered together to form a community around the Black Volta River in Ghana. These ghouls, led by Thema Laula went into the villages and towns of the region and infected (or ate, depending on the source) the locals. With their increased numbers they were able to build a a basic infrastructure and government with Laula being named Queen. This new country, called Asamando, was to be a safe haven for the ghouls of the world. And under Queen Laula's control the country grew to become one of the most stable (and the oldest) post-Awakening country on the continent. They also have the highest literacy rate on the continent, and quite possibly the world. Even more wondrous is that over 60% of the adult population has a college degree.
On November 29^th, the University of Chicago's Magical Studies Dept. announced that their research into the Bermuda Triangle had shown no definitive magical explanation for the disappearances attributed to the region. Outside of a "fuzziness" in the Astral space, the region seemed to be nothing unusual with it at all.
Throughout the winter, a trio of mysterious yet charismatic elves begin a swift rise to power inside the Salish-Shidhe's southernmost territories. The appearence of three elves, Aithne Oakforest, Lugh Surehand, and Sean Laverty coincided with the Shoshone and Modoc tribes moving into the north Salish-Shidhe Territory, effectively leaving the southern borders to the metahumans lured there by Walter Bright Water's farewell speech.
Also, during this winter, a soft spoken write going by Ehran the Scribe began his life in Portland.
##2031; The EuroWars Begin
On January 17^th, the Russian military began an invasion of Poland and Finland in a readily apparent attempt to gather more natural resources. This begins the EuroWars. The Polish military (with a little aide from Western allies) attempted to hold off the Red Menace as best they could, but three short months later Warsaw fell. With the fall of Warsaw, Poland surrendered to Russian forces on April 3^rd.
In India, during the week long Holi Festival on March 17^th, a spirit that many believe to have been the god Jagganath, Lord of the World, travels among pilgrims traveling through the country. This helped inspire the populace of India to rebuild after the crash. Over the next two or three years, India sees a boom in progress in all sectors of the country.
Four days after the fall of Warsaw, Russian forces turned their attention to the East German border, and begin their invasion anew.
Ten days and half a world away, a new constitution is presented before the provisional UCAS government. In just over six months this constitution is ratified in more than 3/4 of the states. By the end of the year it is accepted as the UCAS's official constitution by all signatory states, and President McAlister is named Provisional President of the UCAS.
On May 23^rd, Leopold von Hapsburg defeated the incumbent Austrian government after three long years of civil war, with help from his traditionalist faction and named himself Emperor. Thus he restored the traditional Austrian government, with himself as the head. He used his image as a war hero to great advantage throughout the rest of the EuroWars.
Facing the Russian threat, the Czech Republic sought help, and got in the form of Emperor Leopold on July 6^th. With Austria's forces on the way, other countries followed suit. Europe quickly banded together to for the European Defense Force (EDF) to fill the hole NATO left.
On September 9^th, a cabal of Siberian shamans and sentient Awakened creatures declared northeastern Russia an independent nation called Yakut. This move more than halves Russia’s total land mass. Russia was to busy invading Europe to really worry about it, and seemed to have taken the secession in stride.
Due in equal parts to the Crash and fear of Russian invasion Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden came as the Scandinavian Union on October 21^st.
November 7^th, Echo Mirage destroys the last bit of the Crash Virus. Almost two weeks later, on Nov. 30^th, team leader David Gavilan disappeared without a trace, never to be seen again.
Nine days before Christmas, in Spain, Father Julian Estrellas’s car was struck by an oncoming car when the driver of that car Goblinized and lost control, harming Estrella and killing his mother. This led to his rabid anti-metahuman stance, even maintaining after being named Cardinal two decades later.
On Christmas Day it is announced to the world that cyberterminals have been shrunk down to desk sized coccoons. And, thanks to lowered manufacturing costs. it had become economic feasible to allow them onto the market as consumer grade electronics. The future was here, and it was in the Matrix.
##Sources!
- The Sixth World Almanac pp. 48-49
- California Free State pp. 72-74
- Shadows of Europe pp. 126-127, 81, 12-13,
- Feral Cities p. 8, 74
- Seattle 2072 p. 160
- The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to North America p. 79
- The Shadows of North America p. 166
- Tir Tairngire p. 26
Posted Apr 15, 2014, 8:27 PM UTC · edited