The radio was silent. Static hissed over the airwaves on a band of AM radio that most nations abandoned in the early 1950s. Then, a lonely voice broke the silence. Amidst the static, the low-quality transmission was broadcasted.
“Hello? *kzzzzzzzztt* …hello? Is anyone there?”
The signal was coming from a nation that had long shut itself from the world.
“This is… this is the Holy Republic of TurtleShroom, contacting anyone… hello? ……..we’re back online? Yes! Can you hear this? Can you? Good!! Good!!”
It had been a long time since the TurtleShroom’s capitol had broadcast anything. The nation had just come out of its mourning of the loss of its two Chancellors, Marvin Weirdidea and Fungusamongus. Per law, the nation had to shut its communications off for a month as a sign of remorse, “to focus on God and the individual citizen”, and to begin the process and set up the rituals for the coronation of the next Chancellor. Annointing and all of that takes a LOT of time.
It was in that period that………. IT happened. No Chancellors were in power, so the Board of Regents was in charge. In the interrex period, a colossal terrorist attack in the metropolis that was Craw’s Ford happened. The city was one of the largest cities in the nation. They used sixteen dirty bombs and killed tens of thousands. The aftermath spawned a brutal war on terror that ended in TurtleShroom igniting all-out nuclear war on the enemy. Nuclear weapons rained down on the host country, reducing it to a sea of glass. The casualties on both sides were over three million total, with TurtleShroom taking a hefty five hundred thousand soldiers. The nation that attacked was a rogue state run by an evil junta that didn’t represent the nation’s two million citizens. However, TurtleShroom nuked the pants off of that country anyway, and they all perished.
The war ended in a victory, but no one celebrated. Pastors, preachers, and clerics of all religions and all denominations began to speak out against the atrocities of war. Soldiers of all three species returned home a changed creature. At least a quarter of them were placed in assisted living homes because they were too trembly, uneasy, and, no pun intended, shell-shocked to care for themselves. The nation tripled its spending on institutionalization, and the nation extended its Chancellor-induced mourning another five months to begin a nationwide “soul-searching” experiment.
With grief and sadness, the nation turned to its only place of solace: religion.
Church attendance saw record highs, so much so that citizens had to stand in the aisles and crowd far past maximum capacity. Other religions saw their temples and mosques filled to capacity equally as much. They listened to passionate clerics shout of the horrors of war and said that God/Jesus (or whatever else) had punished TurtleShroom’s violence and international aggression with a divine strike on the nation’s people. The terrorists and the gorefest of a war that followed, plus the Chancellor’s death, was a sign from God.
The people believed it. Nuclear weapon production was changed into upkeep. Military recruitment grounded to a halt. The nation called its troops home. Paranoia and fear gripped the country, and no one wanted another war. The army became a defense mechanism, and many Senators pledged never to authorize a war that wasn’t in defense of the nation.
The people dressed in black and the economy slumped. The entire nation was in an aura of mourning. The “license to practice emo” was revoked when large chunks of the nation’s youth embraced the color black, so much so that Gothics and Emoists couldn’t be picked out. Black soon became the color of the nation, and the year that followed would come to be known as “The Year of No Hope”. Flags flew in half-staff for entire year.
No one wanted to do anything except pray and get in touch with their faith. If they didn’t have faith, they instead came closer to their friends and families.
The economy tanked soon after.
…-and if that wasn’t bad enough, a second terrorist attack killed all twenty four of the Chancellor’s successors. Now in a constitutional crisis, citizens began to take initiative in between their mourning.
When everyone is at a whisper, others can be heard. A rising movement in the humans for a third Chancellor finally came to pass, and a Constitutional referendum for an amendment to coronate a human with the already existing turtle and mushroom passed sixty to forty percent.
Other amendments and laws followed. Some were of anger: new capital crimes were created and laws were stiffened. Others were of mercy: the Christian nation’s newfound revival reminded them of Jesus’ commands to give to the poor .The nation revoked its long-standing “every man for himself” stance and, for the first time, began giving tax money to help the poor, and not just the elderly and disabled.
At the peak of the Year of No Hope, an amendment was introduced giving the power of declaring war to the people. The government could not wage war without a majority vote of the Masses, unless TurtleShroom was attacked. The amendment passed by an eighty percent margin.
Mercy was the word of the day as the amendments creating and authorizing Liberal TurtleShroom were repealed by overwhelming majorities. The nation became softer on child-caused criminals that weren’t capital, and legalized probation (but not parole) in the aftermath.
