South the Mason OOC/App location.

[The Archipelago Territory]

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[Versail]

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Have you joined the Discord server?

[Holy Lykos]

Oh hey, this started up again. Maybe I could join? Had a lot of fun last time.

[NewLakotah]

Oh hey, this started up again. Maybe I could join? Had a lot of fun last time.

Yes, are you in the discord server?

[Holy Lykos]

Oh hey, this started up again. Maybe I could join? Had a lot of fun last time.

Yes, are you in the discord server?

Not yet.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Very interesting. Coming up with an idea.

[The Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune]

Faction/Nation Flag:

Faction/Nation Name: Drakan's Fleet/ The Scourge
Faction/Nation Territory: Albemarle Sound and the surrounding coast
Capital City/Faction HQ: Tortuga, a shanty town built atop what was once known as Roanoke Island.

Cultural Advantage: Strength in Battle. The Scourge may not be the most populous faction, nor the most advanced, nor the most organized, but what they lack in traditional advantages they more than make up for in their sheer battle prowess and fear factor.

Population: Approximate ranges from around 70,000 to 100,000. Of that population though, only around 10,000 are actual "citizens" or non-slaves directly under the Scourge's control. The rest are either under a vassal/tributary government or slaves.

Government: The Fleet is organized as an absolute dictatorship/monarchy under the man only known as Drakan. Upon joining the fleet, one pledges absolute loyalty to Drakan and his bloodline, and swears to be bound to their service forever more. Underneath Drakan himself is a vast proto-bearucracy of various ship's captains and vassals, with no distinct hierarchy besides those on Drakan's council. The Fleet is often at war with itself as much as it is with other nations and a given Captain could be fighting with a different ship or land settlement any given day of the month. The only force besides Drakan that all in the Fleet respect are the Propheti, a group of shamans and priests from various local religions that have been assembled by Drakan as the theological force behind his new Pantheon.

Leaders: Drakan, the Alpha, Lord of the Seas, the Salt, and the Storms, Child of Blood and Thunder, and Progenitor of the New Age.

The Propheti- An assembled group of religous leaders from the various local religions around Albemarle. These range from a Pantheon of Stormlords, a blood cult, to a group of feral men who believe that man's true purpose is to return to a more animalistic state. All bow to Drakan as the savior figure from their combined faiths.

Istrid- Drakan's first born, his greatest champion, and probable heir.

National/Group Ideology: The Scourge follows the ideology of Terror and Obedience. They believe that there is a defined natural order of the strong and the weak and that the world id divided between Rulers and Slaves. To prove oneself a Ruler, one must earn wealth and prowess by beating down those who would be slaves. The Scourge bows only to the strong, and Drakan in the Strongest.

Military: The Fleet consists of roughly 9,000 active members and an additional 1,000 retired "Waiters". The Fleet is a mostly sea based navy, with land defense left mostly to the various vassal states that surround the Fleet's actual coastal territory. While Captains use rudimentary firearms and explosives, the average member of the Fleet likely hasn't taken or bought one of these more powerful weapons and instead uses either an axe or a harpoon in battle. One technology the fleet has mastered more than other nations would probably be metallurgy, if only by accident. Thanks to Blood Cult influence, the Fleet believes in a metal called "Gore Iron", which they make by smelting a large load of iron harvested from various ship wrecks and ruins, and then throwing a few human sacrifices into the mix. Unintentionally, the Fleet then makes rudimentary steel from the carbon found in the human body. This is used to make the armor and melee weapons of the Fleet.

Tactics, if one can call them that, revolve mostly around a maneuver called the "Tide" by the various members of the Fleet. This involves landing on a beachhead, than rushing forward, killing and pillaging all in their path for a few miles, before returning to their ships like a rising and falling tide. A Fleet raiding party on land outside of their territory for more than a few hours is either under a bad leader, or unlucky. The Fleet also makes use of a variety of Chems and Stims to induce a state known as Heartrage in their more powerful soldiers. Heartrage is a powerful beserker state which magnifies one's strength and pain tolerance, at the cost of killing most who undertake it when the effects wear off. A potential Captain within the fleet is required to undergo Heartrage at least once, and of those awarded with the rare title of Commodore, most regularly take the volatile cocktail that leads to the state. The other major side effect is that Heartrage becomes less effective after each use, due to the body building a tolerance to the drugs.

The Fleet has no true command structure other than obedience through respect. Most members travel by ship around and outside of Albemarle sound, though a more recent development has seen two Vertibird's captured and now part of the Fleets repetoir. The Fleet's ships range from canoes to sailing vessels to repaired steam paddleboats used as floating fortresses. Drakan's flagship, the Conqueror, is in fact just three paddleships attached together. These ships, while some have restored turrets, mostly use trained archers as ranged forces, and prefer to use ramming tactics to engaging at range.

Major Towns or Locations: The Flotilla- A collection of ship wrecks and tied on retired vessels just off the inner coast of Cape Hatteras. This is the home village of the Propheti and is host to even more debauchery and villainy than Tortuga. Human Sacrifice, Slave Trade, and all sorts of malicious activity go on here. It's also the commercial capital of the Fleet, with most outsiders preferring the more free willed Flotilla than carefully watching their words in Tortuga under Drakan's watchful eye.

Sandbridge- A town that dates back to before the Bombs, Sandbridge is a key city to the fleet for two reasons. The first is that it provides a near impervious obstacle to any invading force from the north, and the second is that it represents the ideal of the Fleet's eventual goal. Knowing that they lack the organization to adapt to land tactics and the force to push much further than Albemarle, the Fleet's modus operandi is to establish vassal states that will slowly adopt similar cultures to that of the main fleet and then bow to the rule of the strongest. Sandbridge represents the pinnacle of that plan, first a vassal state that became a clan of Horse Raiders that then bowed to Drakan.

History: The Scourge has been a general name for the group of pirates and raiders centered around Albemarle sound since Humans first reemerged after the bombs. Seafaring was one of the first technologies to reappear after the bombs fell and since then the various raiding groups in the area have been using the sound as a lucrative raiding ground for any trade vessels going into and out of the various waterways of the former state of North Carolina. They began to worship a wide variety of sea, crime, and all around distasteful gods and became a force to be reckoned with on the high seas, especially if more than a few groups of them unified.

The history of the fleet however is bound to the will and fate of one man. Drakan. The name itself emenates respect and power, as it was intended. Drakan's story doesn't begin in the Albemarle, in fact it truely begins far away from there, in the Mojave Wasteland. Alan Hinter was a Knight in the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel. He had been recruited as an initiate when he was a young boy and was eager to fight to create a better and more stable world for the entirity of the former US. His idealism was frowned upon by his higher ups, and Alan found his growth in the organization hindered constantly by those who would see him fail. Growing weary of the Western Brotherhood in general, Alan organized and set out with a group of fellow Knights on an expedition out east.

The Expedition itself made it about as far as the ruins of St. Louis. There, they were beset by a huge legion of Supermutants, of both western and eastern variety, and Ghouls, quickly overwhelming the small group of Brothers. Alan and his close friend, Knight Sarah Kildare, were the only survivors, forced to flee further eastward. Seeing the desolation of the east, especially compared to the somewhat rebuilt west, was a hefty blow to the psyche of the two knights, whose supplies and power armor were beginning to fail. The few pockets of civilization they found seemed to have no intention of regrowing, and the further east they travelled, the more bandits they found. The philosophy of rebirth that had propelled the pair forward was actively being shown to fail, and Alan, whose mind had been eaten away ever since St. Louis, began to see Bandits as a recruiting base for a new form of the Brotherhood, one that would not try to rebuild what was, but one that would establish something newer and better than the old ways.

Sarah initially went along with her old friends plans, which at first seemed to succeed. Alan's new army of tech armed bandits saw great success defending an ever expanding area of land. The New Brotherhood as they called themselves were promoting new growth across the more rural portions of the East Coast, not dissimilar to the Minutemen in the Commonwealth. This would not last however. While exploring in the inner parts of what used to be North Carolina, Alan and his top squad found the ruins of a nuclear plant. Recognizing it's potential for tech, Alan and his men delved into the facility. What happened next was unknown to all.

A group of the New Brotherhood found Alan several days later, his armor in shambles and his body terribly wounded. Pulling him back to the mainbase, healers with limited knowledge of the drugs they were using attempted to keep Alan alive, accidently inducing Heartrage within him. Alan arose from the table, and easily killed the four healers treating him with his bare hands. What now rose before his former followers was a beast of a man, changed by whatever happened in the plant. His hair had been bleached a pure white, brighter than snow. He was more heavily muscled than before, thanks to the volatile concotion he was healed with, and any glimpse of Sanity that he still had after St. Louis was replaced with a pure, unbridled rage. Alan Hinter was no more. Drakan had been born.

He took his new name a few days after his rebirth. After recruting a few of the more wild men from his previous followers, Drakan butchered those who would not join him and enslaved the survivors, including his once friend Sarah. Forced to serve her once beloved and leader with unquestionable loyalty broke Sarah, and she became known to the bandits as Biter, a near feral woman who would attack almost anyone with viscious fury.

Drakan and his new band made for Albemarle Sound, drawn by tales of pirates as vicious as them. There they found the Scourge, a brutal seabound culture of honor and power. Drakan used his superior knowledge and remains of his technology to gain control over a small crew of pirates, and from there only built his empire over the next 40 years. The first major conquest of his reign was that of the isle of Roanoke. Once ruled by a commune of traders, Drakan descended upon the island like a plague, enslaved most of the population, and took their leader as his first wife. The woman would soon give birth to Istrid, the first born of the Alpha. Istrid was born with her father's snow white hair, and mean streak. The girl would grow to be her father's greatest asset.

Following his establishment of a capital on Roanoke, Drakan's next move was to establish himself as a permanant, god like figure in the area. He forcibly brought every religious authority in the area, and made them all bend a knee to him. He had their beliefs recorded and compiled into a book known as the Albemarle Chronicle. This of course included Drakan as a demigod like figure in nearly every myth. Spurred on by the new belief in Drakan as a demigod and their desire for loot, Drakan's forces soon overwhelmed any independent Scourge left. From there they established control over most of the coastal areas of the sound, excluding the northernmost tip, which Drakan left under the vassal state based at Sandbridge.

The past 15 years of Drakan's reign have been marked by slow expansion of the Scourge through vassal states on their borders. Widescale raids as far north as the ruins of New Jersey and as far south as what was once Florida have been reported, however it is unclear how much of it is Drakan's men, or other Scourge forced into exile by the big man's take over. Whether or not the Alpha's domain will stay in power remains to be seen...

[Holy Lykos]

I think that's it, though of course its up to y'all to accept it

Faction/Nation Flag (Optional):

Faction/Nation Name: Unión Internacional Socialista del Caribe (Caribbean Internationalist Socialist Union) - Unión Expedicionaria Americana (American Expeditionary Union)

Faction/Nation Territory: (mother state) Western Cuba to Sancti Spiritus, Caymans, the region of the Yucatan around Cancun.
(Colony) a series of forts, harbors, and nascent settlements scattered along coastal Florida islands. from Tampa to Miami and the Keys Map

Capital City/Faction HQ: No true central capital, however the Miami Union houses their most common meeting house.

Cultural Advantage:

• Caribbean Heritage: Being islanders and coastal dwellers for years and years, they've had long experience sailing the oceans and with shipbuilding. Especially since the apocalypse forced them to rebuild navies and trade routes and find the safe routes through the increased danger of sea monsters and the radioactive waves. They know the sea routes around the Gulf and Caribbean better than anyone, and their ships are built for the task. Very few vessels can outrun the brigs, frigates, and longships of the Union. While they often aren't as heavily armed, their ships are durable, lasting, and most importantly: they know how to produce more, rapidly, should the need arise.

Population: 955,000 or so spread between the Ports, but rapidly growing and occasional influx from Cuba and the Yucatan.

Government: Anarchist free-ports, nascent maritime republics, and viking-like expeditions. No central authority, save a council of each of the settlement's elected representatives for mutual organization and defense.

Leaders: The hierarchy they have can be very fluid, but respected individuals in their communities tend to be put in power, or chosen to represent their interests. The most common title given to these people is Speaker. The speakers or representatives are sent to a unified council once a month to discuss news of the colony and coordinate. Along with that, a Liaison from the Union to ensure a line of communication between the Islands and the Mainland. Listing out the most important of these and their factions:

• Acalan "the Bastion of Miami" Gutierrez, Miami Union Speaker and head of the Militarists. He's extremely popular in miami, partially for being the man who organized defense during the early years of the colony and personally killed the leader of a massive raider band that attempted to sack Biscayne. The raiders were killed to a man during the attack, but it's lead to communities in Miami Bay joining the Union as it became obvious they knew how to defend themselves. His policies are aggressive, saying the colony should seize more areas, expel or purge raiders, and start breaking down the remains of Miami to build up the islands and a new city center.
• Bitol Cruz-Escarrà, Tampa Union Speaker and head of the Agrarians. She's been a fixture in Tampa since its founding, and is the oldest Florida Union Council member. She advocates for continued expansion, but focusing on the mainland rather than the islands. She believes central Florida has the material needed to produce a proper fertilizer that would allow them to revitalize regions and expand their own agriculture.
• Loreto Carla Santos, Key Ports Representative and head of the Traders. She's a trader at heart, and advocates the council to promote trade relations and tradeports rather than permanent settlements. beyond the islands. She wishes to expand their naval force as well, and explore up both the gulf and Atlantic coasts.
• Kayden Knight, Canaveral Harbormaster and head of the Separatists. Kayden believes that Florida would be stronger on its own, away from the Caribbean union. Given he was born in Florida and his port is the furthest of the colonies. For now, he's happy to work with the Union, but he wants them to break away once most of Florida is under the control of the Floridian Unions.
• Francisca Marlon, Union Liason and the head of the Unionists. Her own opinions aside, Francisca primarily acts as a way of the greater Union making its wishes known among the Floridians. She's a diplomat and extremely pragmatic, promoting what she believes is in the best interests of the Union and Florida. Right now, that means allying with Acalan and his militarist faction.

National/Group Ideology: Ecological restoration of the Florida wasteland, spreading of the union's ideals of peace through socialist/anarchist cooperation, Sic semper tyrannis

Military: Every settlement for the Floridian expeditions double as a military base, and in a parallel to their homeland, most individuals know how to defend themselves. While every settlement can rally militia of varying quality, their actual military as a group is primarily loans from the motherland. As such, I'll break this up between Unionist Regular and Florida Militia.

Unionist Regulars- Lead jointly by Liaison Officer Francisca Marlon and Colonel-in-chief Pedro Tamayo. Colonel-in-chief Tamayo is the head of both the Navy and Army detachments, given the title to distinguish himself from the actual heads of both of the detachments. Most of the soldiers are armed similarly, due to the prevalence of certain kinds of arms. Out of necessity, they allow soldiers to augment their kit in the field with any weapons they may find.

Fuerza Expedicionario de la Unión de Florida (Florida Union Expeditionary Force) ~2,000 Enlisted and Officers
The primarily Cuban-staffed force is armed with revolvers, breech-loading rifles of various types with attachable bayonets, whatever grenades are available, and machete, with a full kit as you would see in most post-nuclear soldiers including jungle camouflaged fatigues and body armor. Other equipment based on role includes scoped rifles, shotguns.. This force is headed by Lieutenant Colonel Reyes of Colon. They can be backed up by the navy for artillery, but have artillery pieces and Gatling guns that can be pulled by manpower or horses. Most of the infantry have experience on horseback as well, meaning they are highly mobile and adaptable.

They have a battalion of Infantry, a regiment of cavalry, and two batteries of artillery. Generally, for open combat they will form lines to fire in order, backed up with naval or land artillery and screened by cavalry. With more unconventional warfare they'll generally allow militia to fight as they know the terrain better and can function in small units better.

Infantry Organization: ~1,200 men assigned

• Each battalion numbers between 400 and 1,200 men.
• A battalion has have 13-14 officers and NCOs in the headquarters, with 14 officers if the 1st Battalion and 13 for each subsequent battalion in the regiment.
• A battalion numbers about 10 companies, each of 40 to 120 Rank and File with 2 drummers, 2-6 sergeants, 1 Ensign, 1 or 2 Lieutenants, and 1 Captain for a total of 47 to 132 men in a Company.
• 10 Companies to a battalion, 470 to 1,320 men in a Battalion, plus a 14 man headquarters.

Cavalry Organization: ~650 men assigned

• Cavalry is similar, with companies of between 40 and 100 men with 15 in the regimental headquarters.
• A Cavalry Regiment has between 8 and 12 troops so between 391 and 1,347 officers and men in each regiment.

Artillery Organization: ~150 assigned

• Artillery, however, is organized into the Revolutionary Arsenal of Artillery, and divided into batteries.
• Each battery will have between 124 and 148 men and 7-9 guns.

Flotilla de la Unión de Florida (Florida Union Flotilla)~372 guns, ~2,300 Sailors
Sailors are armed very similarly to the army, with the main difference being the training in sailing, boarding and capturing ships, amphibious landing, and nighttime missions. They also often wear less body armor to stay more mobile and most armor would not stop a cannonball. The
Ships - all armed with cannons appropriate for their classes.

• 1 5th rate Frigate - 40 guns - 300 sailors
• 6 6th Rate Post Ships - 20-24 guns - 150 sailors each
• 4 Sloops-of-War - 15 guns - 100 sailors each
• 14 Brigs and Cutters - 8-12 guns - 50 sailors each

Floridian Militia-
It's incredibly hard to summarize the militia, as each arms, dresses, and specializes itself differently. Some of them are essentially naval militia, others are guerrillas. In general, their go-to weapons are the same as the Regulars due to familiarity and ability to acquire more from the homeland simply. Settlements and even neighborhoods will augment any assigned uniforms with tokens of home to set themselves apart, or wear unique colors. Unit cohesion tends to be high due to the militiamen knowing each other and working together day-to-day, but discipline and organization is low. Most of them are organized on a democratic principle, where the unit leader is elected from among the unit. This can change at a moment's notice, with snap elections by voice. However, most settlements elect a 'Militia Commandant' to organize their militias into a semblance of fighting order, usually the most popular of the militia leaders.

• Miami specializes in marine warfare, using longboats to raid and pillage the Miami Bay hostiles and trade with the others.
• Tampa's militias are less mobile, with a specialization in artillery, sniping, and distance warfare.
• The Keys focus entirely on ship-bound warfare, with their own merchant fleet often doubling militia duty to ward off pirates. Even the smallest longships know how to defend themselves. They mostly build merchant and civilian ships, though, leaving the heavy cannon loads for the Unionist flotilla.
• Canaveral focuses similar to the Keys, however most of their militia is defensive, focused on heavy armament and slow pushes against enemy positions. They augment with their own fleet's increased cannon tonnage and size. They currently have a frigate of their own in production, to supplement a fleet of longships, 5 brigs and a schooner.
• The Everglades and Sannibel focus on guerrilla combat, fighting in the forests of Florida, along with scouting and intelligence gathering.

Major Towns or Locations:

• Miami Union - The closest base to the Keys makes it a critical trade port and link in the chain between their motherlands and the continent. Its closest ties are with the Cuban city-states, and has been forming a labor unionist style republic as its governing body.
• Canaveral Port-town - a trading port centralized around the Canaveral docks, which has been exploring the old USA's local military bases and NASA's sites. They're a bit less concerned with setting up a future state, and run in a more direct democratic fashion.
• Sannibel and the Everglades Communes - A pair of nearby colonies near the Florida Everglades, who have been focused on the ecological restoration of the area and using it as a new lumber supply. Direct Democracy, with ties to the Zapatistas, and largely agrarian.
• Tampa Bay Trade Network - A trio of colonies that are expanding along the Tampa bay, with one harbor located in the old industrial areas of Davis Island and Palmetto Beach. The other two are in the exterior islands of Saint Petersburg, rebuilding their areas for both defense of the bay and larger habitation. The regions are building up an internal federation of their own, as each colony has its own leader.
• Port of the Keys - The main settlement of the Key islands, centered on old Key West and the nearby Airbase. The longest Union-allied settlement within the Florida Expeditionary Union, yet its population and importance was superseded by Miami's within the last decade.
• Other minor trade and resupply points include Peanut Island(a resupply point between Canaveral and Miami near Palm Beach) and Cedar Cayo (A forward base approaching the Alabamans)

History: As the new millennium wore on, Cuba's situation never really changed from their cold war footing, often switching alignment between China and Russia. They would eventually solidify as Chinese allies, with the warming of tensions between Russia and the USA. The blockade continues, but Cuba endures. The Castros retain power, but over time the veneer of communism they held wore away, becoming more and more monarchical and pure dictatorial rather than attempting to justify their actions as communist.

In Mexico, meanwhile, a rebel group seized portions of Mayan lands in the Chiapas with the help of sympathetic locals and establishes an anarchist region. The Neozapatistas repel repeated attempts to dislodge them. When the Americans occupy Mexico and set off civil strife throughout the region, the Chiapas Neozapatistas expand their influence, offering security to the entire Yucatan and holding back both American, Nationalist, and Cartel soldiers sent to subdue the unruly regions of anarchists and natives.

Then, the Great War commences. Nuclear weapons fly and set off firestorms throughout the tropics. Havanna and a few other major Cuban cities are bombed, both conventionally and with nukes, causing the rulers to flee into bunkers and go quiet. The Chiapas and Yucatan burns, causing more damage to the Neozapatistas than the USA ever had managed. The entire region is thrown into chaos as governments either collapse or crack down on their citizens to retain power through the growing chaos and nuclear disasters.

The Cuban government fractures, with the Castro family only holding onto the remnants of Havana itself once they emerge from their bunkers. The resulting civil wars between various leftist, authoritarian, or other ideologies that all try to claim dominion over the whole of the island only continue and worsen the devestation of the Great War and lasts for over a century. The wars only spirals and fragments the island more, leading to a breakdown of almost everything but local governments.

In the Yucatan, the surviving anarchist factions manage to retain the areas near Cancun. Refugees from the west flood the region to escape the fires and fallout, causing an extensively mixed population of Mexicans, Mayans, and other native groups. Since the Neozapatistas Were already focused on self-sufficiency as an ideology, Cancun transitions easily enough to the new world. Over time they start learning to cultivate and restore the jungle as it revives after the wildfires, but they mostly focus on the sea, becoming expert seafarers, fishermen, and shipwrights. They focus on simpler ships, with a few key larger vessels to transport larger numbers of people and scour their waters for threats with the mutated sea life and pirates. These ships primarily use wind and oar power, as well.

The Zapatistas contact Cuba while exploring the Gulf. While initially neutral, they end up being pulled into the continuing civil wars via their trade with the city states of Colon, Havana, and Spiritus Sancti.

Over time the more moderate and diplomatic voices on the western part of the island prevail, and they begin allying rather than fighting a war no one can win. The Zapatistas join this alliance, creating the "Unión Internacional Socialista del Caribe" (UISC, The Caribbean Socialist International Union). This prompts the eastern part to start consolidating as well, but around a Castro dictator and into a single state. So the island is split between the two fairly equal powers and a region of squabbled over independents, with the UISC representing the less totalitarian of the two, more of an international federation than a nation. The different regions are self-governing, and to maintain the balance they set up a republic-like council of representatives that coordinates the groups efforts. They seized the Caymans and started looking to colonize the Keys and Florida to facilitate trade and potential resource raids in the north.

The American Expeditions start shortly after a few decades, largely independent efforts to set up trade ports on the ravaged Florida coasts, rebuilding where hurricanes and nuclear war and time have destroyed cities. Miami and Tampa are the first settled, but soon a full network appears, and they begin ranging further north, towards New Orleans and the Carolinas. The Union has taken more interest in them lately, leading the council to assign a detachment of Regulars and a flotilla to the new colonies, to help protect them. Rumors of the factions to the north had been leaking south, but they have yet to make official contact with any of them.