Pre-TN timeline:
2014
War breaks out between Pakistan and India over a series of terrorist attacks in India. Later investigation will prove that Pakistan was being manipulated by North Korea for its own reasons. Six months into the war Pakistan, which is losing ground, launches nuclear weapons into India. India responds in kind. Both countries are heavily damaged, but India is the ‘victor’ in that it still exists after the exchange.
2015
In the midst of the Pakistan-India war, North Korea launches an attack on South Korea. The attack is initiated by nuclear strikes on five port cities in South Korea, including Seoul. South Korean and American defenses stop two of the bombs, including the one targeted on Seoul. At South Korea’s request, America refrains from retaliating with nuclear weapons. American, Japanese, and South Korean armed forces initially fight at a disadvantage due to the nuclear damage, but once multiple American carrier battle groups arrive the North Koreans are driven back.
2016
With North Korea on the ropes, China enters the fray, drawing in Japan after seizing several disputed islands. With the US distracted, Arab nations begin falling in a domino effect to fighting between internal factions (Sunni and Shi’a). Iran is drawn in quickly, and Russia and Europe become involved supporting opposing sides.
2017
Nuclear weapons are used in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt. It isn’t clear who the responsible parties are; given the confused nature of the fighting none of the strikes have a clear winner. Fighting breaks out between Russia and Europe directly, as both sides attempt to prevent the other from reinforcing their allies. Late in the year China uses nuclear weapons against South Korea, Japan, and American bases throughout the Pacific, including Hawaii and California. American and Japanese defenses stop some of the missiles, but not all. America retaliates, striking against Chinese military bases supporting their war effort. The war will continue, but in a desultory way as both sides try to recover from the strikes. There is a second series of atomic strikes in China, this time aimed at major cities. America denies responsibility, and by this time China is too weak and disorganized to respond.
2020
World-wide weather patterns, destabilized by the nuclear strikes and by the damage caused by the widespread fighting, begin changing across the planet. It soon becomes clear that the planet is cooling much more rapidly than anyone thought was possible. Scientists theorize that the dust kicked up by the nuclear explosions must have pushed the world-wide weather patterns past a tipping point. No one is sure when the weather will reach a new point of stability. As temperatures fall, most of the wars peter out due to exhaustion.
Unnoticed by practically everyone, researchers at the Lawrence-Livermore Labs in California make a breakthrough that will ultimately change everything. Their discoveries in Trans-Newtonian technology are almost immediately buried in the hysteria over the weather changes. They aren’t totally forgotten, though.
2023
The US has been overwhelmed by Canadian refugees fleeing the perpetual winter that has gripped the northern climes. Now, the northern half of America is gripped by a winter that is beginning to appear perpetual. The US government has made overtures to Mexico and other Central American nations, but has been rebuffed. Those nations, remembering a century of American dominance that has, at times, chaffed, now revel in the problems their northern neighbor suffers under. They have underestimated American resolve, rather drastically. America is hurt, still reeling from the effects of the war with China and from the Canadian refugees, but it still has the strongest military on the planet. After the President fails to gain agreements with the Central American nations, the Congress impeaches him, replacing him with the Vice President. The Congress then passes the American Dominion Act, authorizing the US military to secure any location on the American continent, North or South, required to ensure the continuation of America and Canada.
2024
The American wars are over within six months. American and Canadian troops now control Mexico and all Central American nations down to Panama. In the meantime there have been other wars and displacements around the globe. Russia, no stranger to bitter winters, and the most northern of all of the major powers, was the first to realize that its position was untenable. Russian troops and aid workers have been present throughout China and India in internationally-lauded aid and relief efforts, now those troops are reinforced and full-fledged Russian colonies are being setup throughout both nations as Russia emulates America and relocates south.
2025
Europe vows to fight the winter and avoid relocation, even as plans are made within the European parliaments for their own relocation south. The UK, as ever, acts unilaterally, and begins a massive relocation effort to Australia and New Zealand. Alone of the relocations thus far this is a peaceful transfer, agreed upon by the recipients. The UK government is overseeing the orderly transfer of as much of its industry and culture as possible even as conditions worsen.
2031
The migrations continue south as conditions continue to deteriorate. The US government forces, either by political pressure or actual military force, all American governments to merge with itself, and moves the bulk of its population to the northern portions of South America, primarily Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. The European Union has finally admitted defeat in its futile battle against winter, and is migrating south to central Africa. None of the African countries are capable of putting up much resistance. Russia has continued its migration south to the southern portions of India and Thailand. Meanwhile, the UK has become established in Australia, but New Zealand has been largely evacuated as it is too far south.
2032
The US Congress passes a series of constitutional amendments intended to reconcile the law to its current situation. First, all Canadians who have remained on the American continents rather than immigrate to Australia are granted American citizenship, and the two governments are officially merged. Next, American law is changed so that citizenship can only be passed by birth, not location, a recognition that fewer than 10,000 people still live in the continental United States. Finally, a series of amendments are made recognizing and codifying the Dominion status of central and South American peoples living under American rule. In essence these changes ensure that the indigenous peoples ruled by America will remain separate and subordinate to “true” American citizens.
2034
The weather seems to have stabilized. The portions of the Earth north of the Tropic of Cancer and south of the Tropic of Capricorn are largely uninhabitable. There are exceptions. Israel struggles on in isolation, one of the few large-scale human outposts so far north. Human population has dropped precipitously, and is continuing to drop, largely at this point due to lingering radiation in the environment. All four remaining governments are increasingly unstable, both due to pressure from within, and increasingly organized resistance from the populations that they have displaced/conquered. None of the governments are what they were, having been forced to change by the traumatic events of the last decade. The United States, now calling itself the United American States, is ruled by an oligarchy of power brokers in the Senate and the Congress, with the President merely being first among equals. The UK, fallen upon difficult economic times and struggling, has changed the least but is under the most pressure due to vast numbers of refugees taken in from all over the world. Russia is ruled by a quorum of generals, while Unified Europe is ruled by an oligarchy much like America’s.
2038
Over the last four years all four remaining governments suffer from large scale rebellions within their territories and from major challenges from within. Reacting to these challenges, the governments meet and agree to form a new supra-national government in the hopes of shoring up their control of their own people. The new government, the Earth Federation, is formed ostensibly around lofty goals of freedom and self-determination; however, it is in reality merely a method of control for the large masses of workers oppressed by the various governments. In most cases these workers are the indigenous peoples that lived in the areas taken over by the migratory governments.
For propaganda purposes the Federation Government disbanded all national militaries and destroyed all remaining stocks of nuclear weapons. In reality the militaries were merely transitioned to a new organization called the Civil Protection Group. The nuclear weapons were actually destroyed, as the Federation in effect controlled the entire planet, and as the only government had no need of the weapons. For public consumption the new Federation government presents itself as a “New Dawn” for humanity and as a departure from the militaristic past. This is largely a front, viewed by the newly installed Federation Council as a sop to the masses, as the real reason for founding the Federation was to ensure control of the masses with an iron fist. The Council is composed entirely of the political, military, and corporate leaders of the old nations, and their attitudes and beliefs are rather cynically old fashioned. Ironically, as time goes by the Federation Council will come to embrace a decidedly anti-military viewpoint, even as it cynically uses the Civil Protection Group and then later the Council Guards to suppress the people.
2040
The Civil Protection Group has been effective in putting down various uprisings and coup attempts. The Federation has seen some successes in organizing expeditions into the abandoned lands to recover resources and technology. The large-scale die-offs are largely a thing of the past, put humanity still struggles with a negative growth rate, partly because of the changed environment and partly because of the lingering radiation.
2048
A Federation expedition to California recovers the TN tech research from Lawrence Livermore Labs.
Start Year 2050
The Earth Federation rules over the remnants of humanity
1 billion population, limited facilities, except: 100 RD
Conventional start
Earth is radiated and suffering from the effects of nuclear winter. Ave temp is -1.2 degrees worldwide.
TN tech has been discovered and is now being put into use.
No ships as the start of the game. The Federation has the standard low-tech ground units for a conventional start.
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The Federation
The Federation is the Earth’s first supra-national government. The Federation government was designed from the ground up to give the impression of an open democracy while preserving the essentially illiberal and undemocratic institutions of what had become known as “migratory governments”.
The Federation is organized as follows:
Federation Council – composed of twenty members, five from each of the Regions.
The Council’s supporting bureaucracy is organized into four Ministries – Ministry of Security, Ministry of Science, Technology & Industry, Ministry of Agriculture & Labor, and the Ministry of Finance.
Regional Governments
The Regional governments are subordinate to the Council and the Federation Ministries.
America: Capital - Georgetown, Guyana
United Europe: Capital – New Paris (Mogadishu)
New Commonwealth (United Kingdom): Capital – Darwin
Russian Empire: New Moscow (Bangkok)
Local Governments
Provincial/State, City, and Counties. These local governments are organized in many different ways based on their region. In some areas of American control these governments are little changed from their original forms prior to the American occupation. In a contrast, most local governments in the Russian controlled areas are some form of military government controlled by ethnic Russians.
While there are differences in how each Region is governed, for the most part the results are the same. The lowest level of government, the leaders of cities, towns, and counties, tend to be democratically elected in relatively open elections (in most areas). The power of these local leaders is sharply limited, though. The successively higher levels of government become progressively less democratic, although there is much window dressing in place to hide that fact.
The Federation largely depends on the brutal and swift repression of any and all dissent, either through pinpoint application of police forces or the brute force represented by the Civil Protection Group.
