2095: Blood and Iron

[Hellslayer]

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: Cult of Byron
Territory reserved: Brazil

I am very confused and interested to see what this turns out to be

Currently at 359 words, so you'll soon see. But essentially it's a religion taking over Brazil.

[Hellslayer]

In 2051, a man named Eria Byron made a claim that shocked people across Brazil. He said that he was God, and that the end was upon us. He claimed he would wash away the filth in humanity and leave only the pure behind, to continue the legacy of superior humans. At first people were sceptical, but he soon gathered a cult around him, and seemed to perform miracles. People would watch as he appeared to turn water to ice at his touch and levitate. In reality, these were clever tricks, not the work of God, but more and more fell into his Church, and his influence spread. Soon he had an army of loyal worshippers following him, promising to aid him in the ridding of evil. As they marched across Brazil, they killed anyone who didn't agree that Byron was God was murdered by this mob. The statue of Christ the Redeemer was torn down and a statue of Byron put up in it's place. Bolonaro sent the army to stop this revolution, but the swarm grew larger as the soldiers even turned to it. The Cult, now in the millions, marched on to Brasilia, and the government fell. Bolsonaro was stabbed to death while trying to plead with the riot outside his palace.

As Byron made his speech as the new proclaimed leader, the Saviour, a soldier, secretly still loyal to Bolsonaro, pulled out a pistol and shot Byron dead. The enraged crowd, believing the man had just doomed humanity, tore him apart with their bare hands. It was too late to stop the Cult now. Byron's son, Jon Byron, was proclaimed Saviour and the country finally subsided under their new rule. Sort of. Believing people with disorders and foreigners to be "impure" they set it their task to eradicate them. Although never truly endorsed by the government, they have turned a blind eye to this behaviour. They have a bigger prize on their mind: South America, and the world.

[G-Tech Corporation]

Hrm.

[G-Tech Corporation]

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: The Polar Development Conglomerate, or PoleDev, as most call it.
Territory reserved: Antarctica and her oceans

[New yugoslavaia]

I just hope people don’t start taking up large swaths of land really quickly.

[Plzen]

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: The Polar Development Conglomerate, or PoleDev, as most call it.
Territory reserved: Antarctica and her oceans

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: Cult of Byron
Territory reserved: Brazil

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: Los Montañeros (Officially: Liga del Orinoco)
Territory reserved: Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Panama, Curacao

Reservations noted.

[Khasinkonia]

Two concepts which I'd like feedback on:

A: A radically environmentalist Himalayan Kingdom. Although it maintains itself as the centre of Tibetan Buddhism and vigorously maintains its cultural heritage, the death of the 14th Dalai Lama after the question of whether he would reincarnate remaining unresolved caused a deep shock to eminate throughout the world of Tibetan buddhism. This event combined with the natural extension of lifespans lead some in the Tibetan religious community declared "the end of reincarnation." As a result, preservation of all life and a progressive downward trend of the world's population have become the prime goals of the Himalayan nation, with much of the nation dedicated to preservation, and a maximally green infrastructure. The nation hoards the water resources of the Himalaya mountains to preserve and water its forests, much to the detriment of its downstream neighbours. Despite its beautiful environment, food rations are largely produced via a mixture of spartan hydroponics farming and microbial rationing in order to preserve a semblance of the nation's culinary heritage. Some of the mountains have hollowed out for their mineral wealth, which has left a number of the majestic himalayan mountains as husks.

B: The Inuit Confederation, which is a federation of Greenland, the Canadian Arctic Coast and Achipelago, Newfoundland & Laborador, and Alaska. Rising temperatures have opened up new farmlands in the north, which have brought new life to the Inuit peoples of the far north. Although much of the Arctic has melted, the mineral wealth of Greenland's interior once provided the resources to invest in the Arctic Greenhouse Array, which provides the world's luckier citizens with an array of old vegetables and new genetic monstrosities to dine on. This bastion of agriculture now provides for the nation's expensive national healthcare system—borne of a continuation of the Arctic's alcohol and suicide problems. Although the Arctic is warmer, the hearts of its inhabitants have not been so informed.

[G-Tech Corporation]

POLEDEV: THE POLAR DEVELOPMENT CONGLOMERATE
Polares Entwicklungskonglomerat

A plutocratic corporate fiefdom with a mixed transhumanist-arcadian outlook.

---

PoleDev, officially the Polar Development Conglomerate or the Sovereign Transnational Commission for Natural and Agricultural Acquisition in Marginal Regions (UN) is a country in the Southern Ocean and comprising the landmass of Antarctica. Covering an area of 14.2 million square kilometres (5.483 million square miles), it is bounded by the Southern Ocean, save for its enclaves, who are located within the Southern Ocean itself. Its maritime claims abut with the both international waters and the territorial waters of Chile, the United Kingdom, Argentina, New Zealand, and Australia.

PoleDev territory, that is, the Antartic continent, has been vaguely inhabited since the middle of the 20th century to varying degrees. This human habitation was primarily for resource exploration, research, and scientific curiosity, with the number of inhabitants steadily accelerating throughout the 20th century and picking up into the 21st. By the start of the 21st century, nearly seventy research bases of various sorts and nationalities had been established on the Antarctic continent, housing nearly four thousand persons during the Polar summer, though that number was season and declined to less than a thousand during the long winter. After 1959, access to the Antarctic continent was governed by the Antarctic Treaty System, ensuring that the Antarctic was held in trust for all mankind as a scientific preserve through the late 2030s.

Changing geological and climatological factors, however, began to weigh on the treaty system as early as the 2010s, as competition for dwindling petrochemical reserves beneath Antarctica's sister ice shelf, the free ocean of the Arctic captured the imagination of the world's nation-states. Though retrieval of the resources beneath the Arctic at depths of thousands of meters limited their commercial viability until the Ross-Pikarnev Well was sunk on the Lomonsov Ridge in 2029, both world governments and commercial concerns began looking to Antarctica for more retrievable reserves once the discovery of petrochemicals was confirmed. Early geological and scientific surveys pointed to high probabilities of both petrochemical and mineral resources upon the Antarctic Continent, due to the similar formation geology of the region to the mineral rich rockforms and sedimentary signatures of the South American continental shelf and Australia.

As world water resources began to deplete, competing nations also began to petition the UN for rights to siphon the Antarctic glaciers for freshwater, despite the astronomical scientific and economic costs involved. These first proposals were rejected by the Treaty Secretariat, but after the outbreak of hostilities between Syria and the Israeli state over the Jordan River, the UN began pressuring the Secretariat to revisit these proposals. Merging the long term interests of Russia and China in mineral extraction with the wider concerns of the global South seeking access to water, the Sovereign Transnational Commission for Natural and Agricultural Acquisition in Marginal Regions (UN) was created in 2034. Her original mandate was to conduct feasibility studies into the environmentally-sound extraction of vital resources from the conservation regions, but the environmentally-sound part of the mandate swiftly became occluded as the worldwide water shocks of the 2030s intensified.

The entrances of Gasprom and BHP Group Limited to the board structure of the Transnational Commission in 2037 marked a shift towards extraction of not only UN-determined necessary resources, but also those resources which had been depleted to the point of Antarctic extraction becoming commercially viable, such as molybdenum, manganese lead, cobalt, and titanium. Private funding for the Commission and the reworking of the Commission's mandate to include this funding source thereafter soon led to the foundation of the Prince Edward Logistical Center in Wilkes Land, and the sinking of the first six mines within a twenty kilometer radius of the Center by late 2038.

Profits from the venture were at first marginal, only sufficient to cover costs, but the continued intensification of petroleum sounding efforts in Antarctic waters led to the discovery of vast reserves not only of crude oil, but also natural gas and shale. With the destabilization of world oil supplies the Persian Gulf Conflict created throughout the early 2040s, Antarctic sweet crude soon came to replace Middle Eastern oil as the second most important petrochemical supply chain in the world, and leading partners, British Petroleum and Chevron, surged past Aramco in market valuations in 2042.

The vast amount of facilities, logistical engines, and infrastructure created to service the extraction efforts at the South Pole motivated public-private partnerships to begin local manufacturing efforts, as one study in 2041 tendered by the Australian government categorized 92% of the financial and environmental cost of Antarctic exploration as being tied in with transportation costs to the Australis Continent. Growing environmental concerns, amplified by the cascading costs of climate disasters worldwide, forced governmental and corporate entities to begin moving manufacturing, maintenance, and even housing concerns to Antarctica herself, allowing workers to live the entire year in the vast oil-rig cities and sealed settlemetns of the Antarctic coast. By 2050 the population of Antarctica had reached nearly a hundred and twenty thousand souls.

Continued needs for rare earths, cheap ore, and compact energy led only to amplification of the human presence in Antarctica throughout 2060. Growing cities of tens of thousands of workers, riggers, roboticists, geneticists, geologists, and miners led to the creation of the Polar Security Forces, a UN command with rotating leadership, a lawkeeping organization who had strong ties to the corporate interests that predominated in Antarctica at the time. Technological diversification to deal with the cold weather, and the creation of cold weather infrastructure like sealed underground train networks, swiftly drove the transportation costs from Antarctic downwards inexorably, even as the resource extraction costs from the Third World and known First World reserves began to rise. Climate change played a role in this regard, reducing the amount of dangerous ice floes even as it increased calving events, allowing even non-specialized tankers and shipping to access the growing port-cities of the Southern Continent. Advances in robotics also played their part, for though processing power began to stall, the harsh conditions and limited labor of Antarctica necessitated and soon predicated advancement in automation, both in the indigenous factories and in the descending borehole-mines and undersea rigs of Antarctica, laborers of silicon and ceramics slaving away in the inky blackness of the Polar sea.

The tension between the hodgepodge of UN agencies, corporate interests, and the Treaty Secretariat came to a head in 2063 when the UN General Assembly, motivated by a desire to gain a more equitable share of Antarctica's resources, voted to place the entirety of the Commission under UN supervision. This measure was initially rejected by both the Treaty Secretariat and the UN Security Council, as most of the Security Council members benefited unduly from their share of Antarctica's wealth, however as 2063 passed into 2064 public pressure on the Security Council eventually led to the ratification of the measure - with the understanding that the members of the Security Council would be compensated for their losses by the nationalization of corporate assets.

Thus the seeds of the White War were sown. Though in public only a few of the companies based in Antarctica, such as Consolidated Ant-Anglo Metals, Limited, protested the measures, behind the scenes almost none were willing to acquiesce to the looting of what the corporations though had been a success story largely built on their risks. With public confidence in government competence at a serious ebb, and the only the Polar Security Forces possessing naval cutters and vessels capable of operating consistently in the hideous weather at the bottom of the world, a league of the twenty largest and most influential corporations took it upon themselves to establish autonomy for Antarctica. When the first UN-flagged ships arrived in Port Wilhelm to begin escorting water tankers to Russian coastal reservoirs, they were quietly surrounded and forced to strike their color by both naval cutters of the Security Forces, and two third-generation nuclear submarines silently acquired from the United States. Public announcements were made the corporation involved of the dissolution of the Secretariat, and the transition of the Commission into the Polar Development Conglomerate.

Thus the White War started and ended. With the world on edge in a dozen locations, there turned out to be no governments willing to divert naval assets to fight in unfamiliar waters over an unpopular program of corporate seizures. Several of the entities involved were sanctioned, or sued by various states in court, but nearly all of the cases were eventually dismissed or quietly dropped as the stranglehold of Polar gas, oil, and minerals caused economic hardship. Embargoes were placed on Antarctic goods by several nations, but slowly dissolved over the course of the next decade.

As of 2095, Antarctica is a land of nearly unfettered corporate innovation, governed by the Antarctica Board of Trustees, where the twenty richest corporations of the year send their representatives. The climate shift has only increased Antarctica's value, immense infrastructure projects capturing vast amounts of freshwater for subterranean hydroponics farms powered by fourth-generation reactors, and Antarctica is, through the quirks of history, by some measures one of the freest and most mobile societies remaining upon the planet. With labor highly valued, and innovation still a powerful force to open up new horizons on the Astral Continent, the corporate landmass looks to the future with more hope than most.

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2095: Blood and Iron; an application

[G-Tech Corporation]

That's about 75% of what I actually want to put together for PoleDev. A lot of recent history I intend to work in with that of other states, but, well, the amount of states we have is currently... low

[Democratic East-Asia]

I could go incredibly boring and just be the PRC, though this is just a tag for now.

Or maybe, some anarchist terrorists.

[Sao Nova Europa]

NORTH ASIAN FEDERATION
Северная Азия Федерация - Severnaya Aziya Federatsiya

Federal Presidential Constitutional Republic with a Conservative Outlook.

---

The North Asian Federation has its origins to the Russian civil war between democratic, pro-western forces and nationalists. The democratic forces were pushed out past the Urals. This cemented the division of Russia, and the independence of Siberia. Until 2041, the Russian Federation (as was the official name of the country) was ruled by the Liberal Party. Their rule was authoritarian, as they struggled to restore stability and peace in the region. They managed to preserve the independence of the region from nationalist Russia and to safeguard the territorial integrity of the country.

The Liberals during this time of transition made three important moves; establishing an anti-corruption campaign to put an end to oligarchic interests in public administration, creating a fortified line in the Ural mountains to defend against possible nationalist revanchism and liberalizing the economy with privatizations, tax cuts and deregulation. Despite their authoritarianism, they gradually began allowing freedom of speech and the creation of opposition political groups as the situation in the region stabilized.

In 2041, the North Asian Federation (NAF) was proclaimed. The Federation had a new liberal constitution that guaranteed civil and economic rights, and set checks and balances to prevent accumulation of power by the central government. The 27 Federal States of NAF are largely corresponding to the federal subjects of the Russian Federation in the region. They are given broad autonomy on healthcare, education, regulations and cultural affairs, and a somewhat limited (but still significant) autonomy on fiscal issues and taxation as well. The federal government is confined to fiscal, monetary, foreign and defensive affairs. The executive part of NAF is led by a President, elected for a five-years term and restricted to two terms. The legislative part is comprised by an upper house (Federation Council) of three Representatives for every state and a lower house (State Duma) with 400 MPs elected across the country in singe-constituency seats with a First-Past-the-Post system.

Making use of West Siberia's extensive oil and coal reserves, NAF was able to finance infrastructure spending to better connect the provinces of the country and to shorten the distance of traveling. As the oil and coal reserves of West Siberia dwindled due to overuse in the later part of the century, however, the governments of NAF began a long-term transition towards moving to nuclear energy. Ironically enough, those "fourth-generation" nuclear power plants were largely financed from profits by the oil and coal industries. By 2081, this transition had mostly been completed, and it was thus no surprise that NAF signed the Seoul Agreement of 2089.

Climate change and rising temperatures had a somewhat positive side-effect in NAF. Although the ice in the northernmost, arctic regions of the country melted, rising temperatures also opened up new farmlands in the region, allowing greater agricultural cultivation than any other time in Siberia's history. Although the agricultural sector is still only moderate, it helps with the food supplies of the country and has been one of the ways NAF has been dealing with unemployment. Many of the farmlands are subsidized by the state governments, and a move criticized by fiscal conservatives but widely popular among the farming electoral block.

On the other hand, climate change also had the negative effect of extreme wildfires, especially during summers, in Siberia's many forests. Those fires would rage with great ferocity and speed, making it difficult for the authorities to control. In order to deal with the wildfire crises, fire stations outposts were constructed across the country in strategic checkpoints and many vehicles and aircraft were acquired. Indeed, NAF has a large fire department than a police force and spends nearly 1.4% of its GDP on preventing fires. While this has allowed the authorities to limit somewhat the destructiveness of the fires, they are still a problem.

Bio-engineering in NAF is mostly used for medical reasons and provided by the public and private healthcare sector. This is largely due to the population's conservatism with regards to transhumanism. Nevertheless, as stated, the technology is widely accepted when it comes to healthcare and while it is regulated by the state governments, it is recognized as a medical necessity.

Politically, NAF has been dominated by two parties; the center-right Liberal Party and the center-left Progressive Alliance. The Liberals are mostly supported by businessmen (both upper class tycoons and middle-class business owners), the military (soldiers and officers) and academics. Progressives are mostly supported by civil servants, farmers (especially those subsidized by the state governments) and ethnic minorities. Liberals tend to support fiscal conservatism, social moderation, and an internationalist foreign policy. Progressives tend to support fiscally third-way policies, socially progressives ones and also largely agree on the need to follow an internationalist foreign policy. As both major parties tend to be on the center of the political spectrum, there is broad agreement on the need to respect liberal democratic norms domestically and international law and agreements externally.

NAF has an army of 106,000 active personnel and an arsenal of 900 nuclear warheads, most of them carried over by the democratic forces when they where pushed out of European Russia. Despite this substantial military force, that guarantees the independence of the country, NAF for the most part has pursued a conservative, liberal-oriented foreign policy. It has signed environmental treaties (such as the one of Seoul in 2089), agreed to take in 250,000 refugees and has been an advocate of world peace and talks between China and the US.

The first President of NAF was Georgy Antonovich (2041 - 2051), a Liberal politician who won handily in the first free presidential elections. He served two terms. In his presidency, he oversaw the reinforcement of the Ural defensive line with minefields, barbed wire and electrical fences. He also created the Federal Energy Fund, financed by the profits from the oil and coal industry. On international affairs, he continued the Liberal policy of neutrality and acting as a mediator between the US and China. Kiryanov Borisovich (2051 - 2061), a Progressive politician, also served two terms. He became the first non-liberal to win office in NAF, confirming the transition towards liberal democracy. He used the Federal Energy Fund to finance large-scale infrastructure projects, including high-speed railways, new airports and more paved roads to better connect the states of the federation. He also agreed to take in 250,000 refugees from Africa, although critics pointed out that most of the refugees were educated middle class Africans rather than poor people.

Sultanov David Danilovich (2061 - 2066) was another Progressive president, but he won only a single term. He continued funding infrastructure projects but he also began moving towards nuclear energy. This was a policy followed by his successor, the Liberal Sherkov Nil Aleskeevich (2066 - 2076). Sherkov had two priorities; using the profits from the oil and coal industry to finance a transition to nuclear energy and modernizing the NAF military with purchases of weapons from both China and the US, as he tried to safeguard NAF's traditional neutrality. On both counts, he was widely successful; NAF began mass construction of fourth generation nuclear plants while his 'arms diplomacy' both enhanced NAF's military capabilities and deepened ties with both China and the US. Vikhrov Iosif Yevgenievich (2076 - 2086) was a Liberal, who followed Sherkov's agenda for the most part; he continued constructing nuclear power plants and launched the 'Fire Protection Initiative', constructing fire station outposts all over the country and dramatically increasing spending to counter catastrophic fires. On international affairs, he tried to foster talks between China and the US but had little success.

Faddei Vadimovich (2086 - 2091), a Progressive, came to office with an agenda of increased welfare spending. With his Healthcare Reform Act, he increased the federal funds directed towards state-run healthcare systems, allowing most federal states to expand their health services. He also became a prominent environmental figure. He signed the agreement of Seoul to ban use of coal in 2089, launched a number of reforestation efforts to deal with trees burned by wildfires and zoned off large parts of Siberia as 'natural protected zones'. He also tried to increase financial aid towards desertified regions, but the legislature (controlled by the Liberals after the 2089 legislative elections) blocked this initiative.

Lavrenti Valeryevich (2091 - present) is a Progressive. He was elected after Faddei decided not to seek a second term due to health problems. In his late forties, he is a relatively young politician who has the profile of a moderate reformist. He is seen as a consensus-seeker who is willing to work with moderates on both sides of the aisle. He thus lowered the federal income tax but also legislated increased funding on wildlife preservation and nominated the first Afro-Asian minister, Jonathan Larionovich, a thirty-five years old economist. Internationally, he has renewed efforts for arms control and peaceful resolution of disagreements and has signaled his will for NAF to take in more refugees.

NAF has a population of 34,000,000. The population is divided between Russians (who constitute a clear majority), various Turkic ethnic groups (such as Tatars, Yakuts and Buryats), and about 500,000 Afro-Asians, descendants of refugees that NAF accepted from African nations. NAF is also the largest country on earth, with an area of approximately 13,100,000 square kilometres (5,100,000 sq mi) or 8.8% of the earth's land area. It has a density of 2.5 people per km2 (6.5 per sq mi). Most citizens of NAF are referred to as North Asians, as the country has attempted to create a new, unifying, national identity.

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2095: Blood and Iron; an application

[New yugoslavaia]

So, who's been accepted so far?

[Bolslania]

RICHARD-KLOSSNER PACT
German (and variants ie. Austrian and Danish)-RICHARD-KLOSSNER-PAKT
French- PACTE RICHARD-KLOSSNER
English(Left over from American influence)- Richard-Klossner Pact

Federation with a Conservative Outlook.

---

(an encyclopedia-style article giving a brief overview of your organization's post-1945 history, politics, territory, economy, demographics, and military/diplomacy; minimum 1,000 words)
In 2025, when most of the issues that plague the modern world began to start rising, The EU held a Consensus to discuss how the EU would handle the new world situation. With America descending into chaos, the EU was left on its own to face Russia and the new world issues. As a collection of small, and unfortunately not well unified states, Germany and France decided that they could no longer support the rest of the European Union as they had been for nearly 30 years. When both nations left the EU, they formed their own Defense Pact, known as the Richard-Klossner Pact. This was functionally a second iteration of the EU, but with only France and Germany participating. With the main administrators of the EU gone, the EU eventually fell apart 25 years later.

Independent of the EU, the RKP(Richard-Klossner Pact) was left to establish its own system. Rather than adopting a whole new economic and governmental system, the RKP adopted the German Social Capitalism and Parliamentary Democracy. Due to the size of the newly formed RKP, Universal Healthcare was abolished, to be replaced with cheap healthcare. In 2035, non-renewable energy was banned, only to leave renewable forms of energy such as solar power, nuclear power, and wind power. the Richard-Klossner Pact has attempted to maintain a global stance, doing its best to maintain trade relations with other nations. Main exports are weapons, civilian and military vehicles, and computer technology.

In the first years, there was a fair amount of debate over who should preside over the newly formed RKP. eventually, Karl Ostenmann from Germany was elected to preside over the RKP for a term of 8 years. However, power plays early on from political machinators led to a state of chaos from 2033 to 2040. During that time there was no Chancellor, some taking power and then being removed a few months later. In 2040 Charles Monroe from France was elected. Liked by many, he ended the reign of political chaos and established a well-functioning, democratic RKP that has endured ever since. Notable features during his Chancellorship are the European Space program which eventually put bases on the moon and in orbit, the Sustainable Food Program, which adopted 3d printed food as a regular concept in farms, this act prevents restaurants and the like from 3d printing their food, only allowing agricultural facilities to do it to maintain the agriculture industry. As well as the Give Back program, which instituted free government housing and government jobs for those in need.

While the Richard-Klossner Pact binds France and Germany (and now Benelux) together, but France, Germany, and the Benelux nations are allowed to function as mostly independent states, but public issues, such as power, defense, and border control are handled by the RKP government.


In 2050, the remnants of the EU collapsed, and the RKP remained one of the sole powers of Europe. Due to only a slim terrestrial route from Germany into France, the RKP government annexed Luxembourg and Lichtenstein. They attempted to annex Belgium, but Belgium wanted to maintain independence, so it was taken by force. There was a short-lived attempt to annex Poland and Switzerland, but upon those two nations refusing, the RKP decided not to pursue an action of military force.

In 2067, to control population growth, a one child policy was instituted in the RKP, this lowered the population growth in the RKP to 5% increase by 2145. Some thought has been given to instituting an age limit of 65 in the RKP, but this hasn't really left the speculation stage due to its rather amoral nature. This also applies to divorces and remarriages, only one child is allowed per person.


Post 2025, relations with America declined severely, with American president Donald Trump and RKP Chancellor Karl Ostenmann seeing differently on almost every issue. War with America nearly came in 2027 when Trump ordered a flight of American bombers to violate RKP airspace, upon sending fighters to intercept the bombers, the Americans turned around. The RKP issued a formal warning to the United States, saying that the next infraction, the american aircraft wouldn't leave RKP airspace. Ignoring this warning, another flight of bombers was sent over the border, and true to his word, the fighters were shot down by SAM batteries without warning. A Declaration of War was drawn up, but upon a change of president in America, they were never issued.

The RKP has been victim to several terrorist attacks, however, with well-funded outreach and social welfare programs, this attacks are very rare. Because of the rarity of these attacks, the nation has not felt the need to expand its security measures or close its borders to invaders. The security features of the RKP are very comprehensive and efficient, using CCTV cameras, placed in strategic public areas, such as intersections, alleyways, and entrances to large buildings, to monitor the public areas. However, the government leaves private property, only violating private property with a warrant or an emergency situation such as sounds of violence or a fire (and obviously if they receive a call).

Up until 2056, the RKP had fairly open borders, but because of too many immigrants coming in, the parliament voted to all but close the borders, only allowing 2,000 immigrants per year to come in to the RKP. After 20 years of reasonably unrestricted immigration, the demographics of the RKP are as shown:

The ethnic demographics are as shown:
40% Caucasian
20% Hispanic/Latino
20% African/Caribbean
15% Semitic (Middle eastern)
5% Asian

Religion is not very common in the EU, most of the power of religion having faded in the 2030s. Only about 25% of all Europeans are religious. However, some bastions of religion still remain.
The religious demographics are as follows: NOTE THESE PERCENTAGES ARE DERIVED FROM THE RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY, NOT THE POPULATION AS A WHOLE.

50% Protestant
20% Catholic
15% Jewish
10% Muslim
5% Buddhist

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2095: Blood and Iron; an application

[Bolslania]

For some reason I can never resist the call of a European nation in country-based rps

[Plzen]

Interesting... no time to give them detailed reviews tonight, alas, but I’ll get back to y’all tomorrow.

[Khasinkonia]

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: The Himalayan Kingdom
Territory reserved: Tibet, Chinese Kashmir, Northern Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh, Bhutan, and Sikkim

[New yugoslavaia]

In the backstory, you mentioned about expanded deserts. What about the Southern African ones?

[Plzen]

A plutocratic corporate fiefdom with a mixed transhumanist-arcadian outlook.

One outlook, please. I'd say that transhumanist probably fits this concept better than arcadian.

The application looks good - I envision the Arctic region, Canada, Scandinavia, or Siberia, as the last regions in which hope for the future still burns. I didn't imagine the same for the Antarctic, but the same environmental and demographic factors that apply to the Arctic would also apply to the Antarctic - doubly more so, since the latter is even colder, more resourceful, and less populated. :p

Provisionally accepted, but please revise your outlook.

Unrelated to your application, but you may also wish to consider how you intend to avoid falling into the Dutch Disease.

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I could go incredibly boring and just be the PRC, though this is just a tag for now.

I originally envisioned the two great powers of this world to be China and the US, so once we have those I'll be happy to put up the IC.

Although it looks like the European Union might emerge as the third superpower. Didn't expect anyone to put up an application for a united Europe. :p Normally I have to kettle players to get someone to apply for a European superpower, but in the one RP where I didn't request one someone puts an app for it anyways.

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Climate change and rising temperatures had a somewhat positive side-effect in NAF.

Remember that climate change would have brought drawbacks as well as benefits. Higher agricultural productivity and the opening up of Arctic resources are both solid points, but while Siberia isn't at risk of turning into a desert, it is significantly drying out - forest fires would be a significant threat, to the degree that they are in California IRL these days.

I'm also requesting a bit more detail on your history - I did ask for a thousand-word article and your application falls a bit short. While it'll be up to discussions between you and the Russian player to decide what led up to the Russian Civil War, that still leaves 50 years of history afterwards, in which your new nation would have been establishing itself, trying to fend off Russian revanchism and fit itself into the Asian diplomatic sphere. How did these things happen?

Provisionally accepted, pending requested changes.

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In this Consensus, Germany, Poland, France, and Austria decided to unify.

Why? What pressing need for unification did these nations have that could not be solved by the existing European Union structure, or by a defence agreement?

In 2050, the remnants of the EU collapsed, and the European Federation adopted the name. The European Union also began to absorb neighboring nations, annexing Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg. The EU attempted to annex the Netherlands and Belgium, but those two nations resisted, requiring the application of military force. The Euro War lasted from 2054 to 2055, with the Netherlands and Belgium just not having the force to resist the might of the EU. There was a short lived attempt to annex Belarus and Ukraine, but when those two nations refused, the EU decided not to pursue the invasion of the two countries.

What motivated this shift towards militarism and aggression in the internal politics of the European Union? The Swiss are also incredibly defensive in their foreign policy stances; what prompted them to accept integration into the European Union?

Through 2056-2072, the EU was struck, along with many other places, by a resurgence of the bubonic plague. This was handled fairly well by the government, however, this new strain killed about 15% of the population over the 20 years it was around.

I will reject out of hand the idea of any disaster of such magnitude having happened in the 21st Century. The timeline isn't that dystopian.

In 2054, a non-partisan Platonian "Government Caste" was formed. It functions somewhat like a clergy, with inductees not being able to own private property or interests. However, they are allowed to marry and have a child.

Again, how did this happen? These are very profound shifts in European politics/diplomacy that you're positing happened, with no explanation as to what motivated these changes and why the social elite and the population in general went along with them.

The European Union has reasonably open borders, with immigration not being too expensive or hard to do.

This would mean millions of immigrants a year, every year, for the entire second half of the 21st Century. Such heavy immigration does not happen without profound social, economic, and political effects, which you should explore.

I'll add that I'm not entirely sure from this application what your territory is. It covers France, Germany, Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and Luxembourg?

Since you did put up a draft, I'll extend your reservation by another two days, but your application as it currently stands is unacceptable.

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RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: The Himalayan Kingdom
Territory reserved: Tibet, Chinese Kashmir, Northern Nepal, Arunachal Pradesh, Bhutan, and Sikkim

Reservation noted.

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In the backstory, you mentioned about expanded deserts. What about the Southern African ones?

The Kalahari and the Namib deserts would also have grown somewhat into the surrounding drylands, but it wouldn't have produced a profound shift in regional society that desertification in the northern hemisphere brought.

[Sao Nova Europa]

I have edited the app as requested. I've expanded it with mention of wildfires and history of the country after 2041. Prior history has also been somewhat expanded but it is still a little vague as it is dependent on the Russian player's history.

[SangMar]

RESERVATION
Name of state/organisation: The Neo-Urban State
Territory reserved: The Greater New York Area.

[G-Tech Corporation]

One outlook, please. I'd say that transhumanist probably fits this concept better than arcadian.

The application looks good - I envision the Arctic region, Canada, Scandinavia, or Siberia, as the last regions in which hope for the future still burns. I didn't imagine the same for the Antarctic, but the same environmental and demographic factors that apply to the Arctic would also apply to the Antarctic - doubly more so, since the latter is even colder, more resourceful, and less populated.

Provisionally accepted, but please revise your outlook.

Unrelated to your application, but you may also wish to consider how you intend to avoid falling into the Dutch Disease.

I can do solely transhumanism if you are sure, but I had hoped to portray the politics of the Conglomerate as mixed - with those of older corporatist nature more nearly mirroring transhumanism and the need to change man to fit a changing world, while newer immigrants and the younger generations who weren't miners/rig-workers/engineers being of a more libertine bent, and seeing Antarctica as an unspoiled wilderness and trust for humanity to be husbanded, not exploited, and thus embracing arcadianism.

Up to you though. If you only want one archetype, I understand. I just thought the dichotomy would be an interesting internal quirk of the body politic.

Fundamentally, I'm actually counting on the Dutch Disease to provoke the transition from PoleDev as world resource exporter to PoleDev as stable manufacturer of goods and environmental steward. There's much more money to be made in manufacturing, and the impetus to reallocate capitol into domestic production instead of trading resource exports for the imports of goods would be something the Conglomerate encourages, not suppresses. I'm not actually aware of instances where the Dutch phenomenon worked in reverse to a deleterious outcome.

[New yugoslavaia]

So I imagine they're isn't much to do with space just yet.

[Bolslania]

I have edited the draft

[SangMar]

THE NEO-URBAN STATE
The Neo-Urban State
El Estado Neo-Urbano

A Presidential Republic with a Transhumanist Outlook.

---

The Demography of the Neo-Urban State

”As of the year 2091, the Neo-Urban State controls a small but mighty section of the North American continent - the entirety of the Greater New York Area: from New York City to New Haven, their flag - and with it, their ideals proudly flutter. As for the state itself, approximately 45 million people call the nation their home - men, women and children of all colors, creeds and backgrounds; out of these, the responses to the 2090 Census indicate that Whites of all origins make up a majority of the population (52%), followed by non-White Hispanics (26%), then East Asians (13%) and finally, Blacks (9%).

This ‘melting pot’ makes the country strong - a verifiable ocean of experiences, cultures and viewpoints that make any conversation between two or more Urbaner likely to be memorable for all who bear witness to it.

The largest city - and capital is the eponymous, City of New York - which boasts some 14 million residents, and is the heart of the country’s financial, political and social activities. It’s here too, that the ‘melting pot’ ideal can be witnessed most prevalently - with numerous ethnicities living shoulder to shoulder, from the Bronx to Staten Island. However, it should be cautioned that while we’ll only be focusing upon New York City for the majority of this e-book, the rest of the nation is by no means a 3rd world backwater - you’ll find that other vast urban settlements like Newark and New Haven are equally palatable.

During our travels throughout the state, we were also keen to pull back the curtain on the various religions throughout it. Our efforts confirmed two large suspicions - firstly, the Neo-Urban State is officially State Atheist, and two, a majority of the state’s citizenry do not believe in a deity. The religious breakdown is as follows - no religion (59%), Judaism (17%), Protestantism (12%), Catholicism (9%) and other religions (3%). We were also surprised to learn that unlike nations that adopted State Atheism in the past, the Neo-Urban State makes no effort to quell religious beliefs - being content with a government which pays no heed to religion only. As for as the citizenry are concerned, the Government views its citizens’ religions as a private matter...”

The Government of The Neo-Urban State

“Initially, we were completely at a loss to the make-up of the Urbaner Government - some sources told us it was a federation of loosely connected cities, while others said it was a dictatorial conurbation where dissenting opinion was immediately silenced. However, a chance invitation to the office a high-ranking minister - gained after much haggling from one of our sources - soon shone a light on how this particular part of the state operates. We learnt that the Urbaner Government consists of a president - referred to as the “Scholar-General” who wields executive power, and the legislature - Central House. Central House is unicameral, consisting of only one chamber - the Council of Representatives. The Council of Representatives has 450 members. Furthermore, elections to it are held concurrently with the elections for the “Scholar-General” - every four years.

This bare-bones explanation failed to satisfy our requirement for a detailed explanation about the innermost workings of the nation’s government; yet it looked like we wouldn’t be getting anything more. Accordingly, we resigned ourselves to this fact, and once the meeting had concluded and notes had been taken, we began work on our next chapter - detailing the state’s emergency services, and with it, a history of the state’s man-made and natural disasters. This lasted about three days, which is when we were approached by an armed convoy outside of our hotel in Manhattan - it transpires that the same minister from a few days prior had taken an interest in our work, and wanted to discuss it further.

Amusingly, several hours later - and after said minister had consumed numerous alcoholic drinks (as strict Quakers, Julius and I stuck to water) he returned to the conversation from several days earlier. He told us that the nation was for all intents and purposes a ‘benevolent dictatorship’ - in his words, and that the Scholar-General was chosen by a small committee of the Council of Representatives: the Ministry for Political Developments. Furthermore, he said officially, any party could run for election - but that in reality, the current ruling party - (the Solicited Break Party) utilises the criminal justice system to force these parties to fight costly lawsuits - consequentially bankrupting them. Even more surprisingly was the revelation that the populace do not seem bothered by this - and will not seem bothered by this unless the current government starts failing to maintain their current standard of living. An interesting expansion on this is that, aside from the political realm, the Council of Representatives do actually legislative on matters, as opposed to being a rubber stamp for the Government. Essentially, any citizen can submit a petition to the Legislature - it requires 50,000 verified signatures, to be collected within three months. Then, assuming it isn’t referring to political, security or sustainability matters, the petition is passed to the Legislature, where it is turned into a workable law by said legislature, who then vote upon it...”

History of the Neo-Urban State

“The reason for the Neo-Urban State’s creation can by traced back to the results of one night - the night of the 2020 US Presidential Election. On that night, Donald Trump - the incumbent, took on his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, for the presidency. However, it should be mentioned that the results of that night don’t matter - but what does matter is that the winner continued the long American tradition of corporatism. They ignored climate change, and the effects it would have - instead they enacted only token policies, which weren’t the drastic change needed to lessen its effects. Now, at the time, climate change hadn’t made significant inroads in North America - well, ones that the average person at the time would care about. This would prove to be the beginning of the Neo-Urban State.

By 2025, and growing increasingly aware of climate change, the residents of the Greater New York Area began to vote for electoral candidates that were more ‘climate conscious’ en masse. Accordingly, the area became a hotbed of progressive politics over the next five years, assuming significant positions in the state legislatures of New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and to a lesser extent, Pennsylvania. This, along with a significant gains in the House of Representatives for the new movement led to the creation of the Solicited Break Party in 2028. Yet despite this - and a growing awareness of the climate change in other states like Louisiana and California, the president and his party still dragged their feet on climate change legislation: vetoing several pieces of legislation between 2025-2028 alone. By that point, it was clear that the legislatures of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut were clearly pulling in a different direction to the national government in Washington D.C: and were growing increasingly resentful of having to contribute fiscally to policies that they viewed as contributing to climate change. Especially for the largest city in The Greater New York Area - New York City, the threat of climate change was becoming increasingly apparent.

A coastal settlement, New York City was always going to have a difficult time when it came to climate change - and their repeated calls for federal funding to prevent flooding going ignored was the last straw. For the rest of the Greater New York Area - and the numerous states in which they belong to, the danger was clear to them also - much of their populace, and income was based around commuters who worked in the city, and many of their own services only thrived because of said finances. Even more worryingly however, many of their own cities outside of the Greater New York Area weren’t immune to climate change - which was demonstrated by three months of flooding in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in early 2030. As such, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey began to openly defy the federal government when it came to initiatives like contributing to tax breaks for oil/coal magnates - instead, they chose to invest the money in a large system of sea-walls and levees to prevent their own low-lying cities from being flooded by the rising sea-levels. Naturally, the federal government didn’t like this - and after repeated refusals from the state governments to cease diverting money meant for the federal government away from it, the president ordered federal agents to arrest the governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In response, these governors called upon their state national guards to protect them. This occurrence led to the president federalizing said national guard units, who were then compelled to assist the federal agents in the arrest of their governors.

However, unlike during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the various national guards refused to carry out said orders and revolted in their entirety. Unsurprisingly, in a country as politically divided as modern America, several other units of the US Armed Forces’ regular contingent - which recruited heavily from the area - also joined the rebellion. One notable exception to this rule was the 10th Mountain Division - which was based in Upstate New York, and didn’t have a significant proportion of recruits from the Greater New York Area: within one week of the rebellion, they had joined it, with the aim of pushing back against the federal government.

The rebellion itself lasted for nearly a year - only doing so due to how enfeebled the United States had become over the course of the late 2010s and throughout the 2020s. A lethal combination of racial strife, desertification in the west and increasing radicalism across the political spectrum made it the federal government unable to react adequately to the rebellion unfolding in front of them. By early 2032, the federal government, now having to deal with a prolonged economic slump and large scale protests that once again had erupted following several police shootings of unarmed Black Americans, conceded defeat - having to focus its efforts on preventing a further disintegration of the Union. That same government signed the Newark Treaty in June 2032, which compelled the United States to a sixty five year demilitarization of Upstate New York, and the areas of New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania which lay outside of the Greater New York Area. Furthermore, the United States was to recognize the independence of the Greater New York Area from the United States. Thirdly, the United States was obligated to sign a ‘Northern Climate Accordance’ treaty - which, in return for the rest of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and New York not joining the Neo-Urban State, banned both federal and state governments there from providing any form of incentives that would aid in the production of non-renewable energy sources. Furthermore, it obligated them to invest a minimum of 3.5% of the national GDP per annum into renewable energy sources and technologies. This, once again was to remain in place for the next sixty five years - set to expire, like the demilitarization clause of the Treaty, in June 2097. Finally, the last clause of the Newark Treaty was also set to run for sixty five years, it was simple. The United States was to pay, annually, a sum of $30 billion dollars per year to the Neo-Urban State, as a form of reparations for the damage incurred across it during the rebellion. In return, residents of New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Upstate New York would continue to have visa-free access to the Greater New York Area, being able to work there with few restrictions.

Over the next several decades, the Neo-Urban State gradually repaired damage incurred during rebellion, and used much of the reparations given to them to build up their own resources - these can be seen today: if you visit any large city in the nation, you’ll find a plentiful number of solar panels on every high-rise building’s roof. Furthermore, you’ll also find a greenhouse or a vertical farm - which were mandated by law, in an attempt to increase the nation’s food security. Other signs of the nation attempting to secure its future are twenty large desalination plants, located across the nation’s shores. There are four nuclear power plants under construction also, all of which are scheduled to come online between 2092-2098.

It could be said that while the Neo-Urban State doesn’t have the brightest future out of any nation, it certainly doesn’t have much to frown about...”






-Excerpts from ‘An Informative Guide to the Neo-Urban State: 2030-2091’ (Alex B. Garcia) (Julius Cheung)

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2095: Blood and Iron; an application

[Plzen]

THE NEO-URBAN STATE

I am very, very reluctant to let players split up the US, and especially the Continental US. We have a fairly big world to fill and I don’t want North America to be a sinkhole taking up half a dozen players - that happens in too many PMT roleplays.

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I'm not actually aware of instances where the Dutch phenomenon worked in reverse to a deleterious outcome.

The theory of the Dutch Disease is that the presence of some highly competitive industry - such as resource extraction - crowds out other industries in terms of their access to factors of production, currency exchange, financial markets, etc.

On the most basic level, it happens when an economy finds it more efficient to export a resource and import manufactured goods than to shift investment and labour away from resources into manufacturing.

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Revisions to North Asia’s application noted and accepted.

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-snip-

Both of these concepts would be acceptable in principle.

Tibet would be taking on some hefty challenges. You’ll have to justify how Tibet managed to get China to let go and simultaneously develop themselves, deal with serious regional instability issues, and adapt to the rapidly shrinking Himalayan icecaps at the same time.

The Inuit Confederation sounds to me less difficult but also less interesting.

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Still the Benelux thing... A military invasion of one nation by another, in that region, for that reason, sounds utterly unimaginable unless there are some profound shifts in regional political and diplomatic norms which need to be justified.

If the European player wants the Benelux area, just have the three countries pull out of the European Union alongside France/Germany. That would be a far more realistic way to set this up than a military invasion.