Cultures of the World

Asia

Asia Ascendant

While the rest of the world struggled through the ravages of the late 20th century, the nations of Asia were well-prepared for the vicissitudes of climate change and environmental degradation. China, Japan, and Korea rapidly concluded that coal burning and oil were too costly to continue basing their expansion on, and instead shifted to creating vast fields of oceanic algae that were easily converted to the CHOOH2 processes of the United States. This quantum shift also provided more food for the Asian nations' dense populations, although strong (some say draconian) birth control programs in some nations also helped reduce excess populations. Crowded and teeming with people, the cities of Japan, China, Korea, and the Philippines still managed to sustain high levels of food security, safety, and comfort even if many lack personal freedoms common in other nations.

The Asian Theatre

The Far East and Asia are now a hodgepodge of damaged nations, with Japan slowly recovering from the ravages of the Arasaka Corporation's abortive coup.
China is still recovering from the loss of Hong Kong through a biological terror attack, and fierce battles in both the South China Sea and the Mongolian Plateau for access to strategic resources has left the government exhausted and tottering.
The Koreas, fractured again by the 4th Corporate War, have become strongly isolationist, although North Korea, drawn into the conflict by promises of Arasaka support, has collapsed into a chaos of warlords and petty fiefdoms. Hammered by brutal fighting over trade routes and oilfields, much of Southeast Asia, the Philippines, and Australia are now isolated, damaged and potentially prey to the next powerful group to come along.
Asia is a long way from the boom times of the 2020s.

Canada

Global warming melted much of the polar icecaps, resulting in higher sea levels. Rising temperatures thawed out much of southern Alaska, northern Canada, and the upper U.S.; these became the new breadbasket areas, producing the verdant fields of bio-engineered "survival grains" that became the basis of much of the U.S. economy.

The Deepdown

Beneath the Surface

Over the past two decades, the Corporations expanded not only into space, but into the ocean depths as well. This web of deep-sea domes and facilities were scattered across the continental shelves of most of the continents, with even some very secretive ones located deep in the Atlantic and Pacific trenches. The domes varied greatly in size, ranging in capacity from twenty people up to as many as a few thousand.
Besides the many research domes, there were semi-submerged "green farms" where krill and crypropalan (two essential items in day-to-day life) were harvested and processed, in addition to more exotic seafood. The other major sub-sea industry was deep-sea mining for rare and valuable minerals and oil. An extremely dangerous profession (although technology made the work far safer than several decades earlier), working and living in these undersea facilities still gradually became the everyday world for several thousand people, who began to refer to this community of subsurface cities as "The Deepdown."
During the War, the Deepdown survived by cutting any links to the surface and becoming as invisible as possible. Dome dwellers developed active camouflage systems that hid their locations from prowling combat subs and their weapons. Even now, the full extent of the Deepdown is uncharted, as the "Deepdowners" don't trust the Corps to not drop a few torpedoes or depth charges on their fragile domes (as happpened often during the 4th Corporate War). Only recently have they begun to forge tentative links with the Drift Nations, whom they use as a safe go-between with the Nomads and other non-affiliated groups.

The Drift Nations

During the 4th Corporate War, many of the floating work platforms and drift cities of OTEC and its rival CINO were the epitome of oceanic technology. The most famous of these floating cities is AquaDelphi, the former home and headquarters of the OTEC Corporation, near Hawaii. Other floating cities, like Florida's Atlantis, are somewhat smaller, while still others began as shantytowns constructed from old oil rigs or jury-rigged platforms made from abandoned, lashed-together oil tankers (as is the case with the Offshore Colonies in the Gulf of Mexico).
Pirates, hostile Corporate navies, and the perils of the open ocean threatened to wipe out these individual cities during and after the War, but by banding together in loose confederations, these "drift cities" (more properly named Drift Nations) are now small nation-states unto themselves, located in international waters with their own defense forces, making them hubs of international shipping and import/export—a true no-man's land of free-living fringe folk. And as terminals for the expanding trade network that has replaced the old shipping webs before the War, the Drift Nations are now a center of both "pirate" and legitimate Nomad activity.

Europe

Unified Europe

In the chaotic world of the 2020s, Unified Europe represented the best option for the new century. Although some nations of the Euro-bloc (Greece, parts of Central Europe, and Britain) lagged behind the most successful nations (Germany, France, Italy, the Scandinavian countries), the nations of the Continent were uniformly stable, relatively prosperous, and Corporate-run. Some inequity was present, but in the day-to-day, unlike their American counterparts, a European citizen could depend on regular meals, clean air and water, and a regular (if not boring) job to go to. There was a roof overhead and crime was kept to a minimum. In some ways, Unified Europe was like a Corporate Beaverville; safe, controlled by the Corps, and a little boring until you got to where the rich and powerful dwelt.

The EuroTheatre

The EuroTheatre has been badly battered by the War and the subsequent loss of its ESA and Orbital colonies to the Highriders. The World Stock Exchange and the Common Market have managed to maintain a stable economy in which most of the European nations participate—the exceptions are Italy, Spain, and Greece—all of which are now suffering violent, chronic political upheavals. Here, the international Corporations still have a great deal of power, but various Euro-governments have skilfully used the War to keep the Euro business barons under control.
Great Britain has suffered major economic trouble; swamped by massive immigration from the U.S. and an antiquated technological base, its streets are still almost as explosively dangerous as those of the U.S.
The rest of Europe is in recovery mode as individual nation states struggle to rebuild damaged financial and industrial hubs affected by the War.

The Highrider Confederation

Mid-war, the Highriders made the choice to not become involved in the harsh Corporate conflict below Low Earth Orbit. In the Seven-Hour War, the Low Earth Orbit colonies and the Highriders at O'Neill Two declared independence, using commandeered deltas and mass drivers to drop lunar rocks and other "ortillery" at key sites all over the planet.
Given no choice, the EuroTheatre, the remnant U.S., and Japan officially recognized the new government, ceding control of Earth Space to the Confederation. The "L" (or La Grange Stationary) Points are now home to literally hundreds of long-duration, self-contained bases, factories, and construction sites. At the L points also orbit the largest space constructions in existence: the roughly toroidal Crystal Palace space station (L-1), the mammoth O'Neill One Habitat (L-5) Paradise Station (L-4), and the smaller Galileo Cylinder (L-3).
Behind the Moon sits the L-2 point, home of the ESA's test-bed cylinder and deep space explorer dock. And since the early 2000s, ESA and its allied nations have also maintained permanent bases on Luna; networks of subsurface tunnels with water provided through mining Lunar ice and air from hydroponic gardens (lit by rolling back huge shutters on the surface).
There are two permanent cities on Luna, both now controlled by the Highriders. Tycho/Luna Colony, the largest, maintains two massdrivers, used to boost Lunar rock and ore out to the L-5 constructions. The second colony, at Copernicus, supports a single mass driver, and a population of around 12,000.
Even ignoring the fledgling colonies on Mars, the Highrider Confederation is one of the most powerful forces on (or around) the planet, easily dominating the ground-side governments. The "groundpounders" know this and are constantly trying to undermine and regain control of space. The outcome is still in dispute and will probably remain so for some time.

Organization of American States (OAS)

A New Union

After several lengthy wars with the United States, Central America emerged as a strong union of independent states, working under a pact of mutual cooperation. The U.S. was expelled from all but the Panama Canal Zone (which it still holds by sheer military force against ongoing guerrilla aggression).
In South America, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil rose to become the defacto leaders of the Organization of American States, having thrown the U.S. out after their actions in the SouthAm Wars. The OAS, maintained its place as a major world power, on the level European Union.

Central and South America

During the War, nationalistic factions in Brazil and Columbia used the Corporate fighting to support their own bids for land and influence; the result was a shattering of the old alliance that only now is beginning to be rebuilt. But the Organization of American States soon rallied and, with the help of strong economic partners like Argentina and a newly democratic Brazil, are rebuilding their cities and establishing new trading partners, especially with the Highriders and the Nomads.

Middle East

The Meltdown Nations

The Meltdown of the '90s left vast areas of Iran, Libya, Iraq, Chad, and the Arab Emirates as radioactive fields of glass. Only Egypt, Syria, and Israel survived intact, and because of their already ruined state were mercifully left alone for most of the War. But new alliances and power blocs are struggling to take control once again now that the Megacorp's power has been curtailed. With the world trade in oil and raw materials disrupted by Corporate conflict, there is a new interest in mining the remains of the Meltdown nations, and in response many of the national groups in the Middle East are starting to band together to reform and resist the invaders.

Neo-Soviet Russia

Neo-Soviet

Beyond the massive reforms of the 1990s, Neo-Soviet Russia is still weakened by its antiquated technology. Even now, it cannot fully feed its hungry population (although the 4th Corporate War has levelled the playing field a bit). With the failure of the economic and social reforms of the Novosovetskaya partiya (NSP), a new generation of highly-aggressive oligarchs is coming on fast. Unlike their NSP predecessors who were content to simply siphon off the remaining assets of the State like the good Corporate robber barons they were, these oligarchs are more akin to the Megacorporates of the roaring 2020s: hungry, dangerous, and willing to use heavier amounts of bribery, murder, and mayhem to accomplish their aims than ever before.

Russian Revanchment

Russian politics of the early 2000s was dominated by the Novosovetskaya partiya (or New-Soviet Party (NSP) after the 1999 general election overthrew the incompetent Russian Federation established under Gorborev. The NSP has been the only ruling party to control the government since then. Sovietized economic and social reforms dominated the majority of the population, under the directives of the Tsentral'nyy Organ (Central Authority), a rotating council of kleptocrats who controlled the major "state" industries. The Media Lyle Thompson once described the NSP as a "capitalist-crony kleptocracy with the nice shiny democratic cover removed."

Pan-African Alliance

Pan-African Alliance is Born

Once a fractured continent of feuding countries under a bewildering array of dictators, democracies and socialist states, the new and united Africa was re-born as the many nations of Central Africa banded together to negotiate with the Euronations who sought to build the Kilimanjaro mass driver. As the prominence of the Central African states grew other nations across the continent joined this Pan-African Alliance.
The Pan-African Alliance established the strongest of all the footholds in space—nearly one-third of all space construction workers were African, and the majority of spaceport facilities and construction areas were built on African soil. The resulting population evolved into a "national" group called the Highriders; a space-based, high-tech society, linked by Pan- African roots and a determination never to be victims of colonial oppression again.
Several cities in Africa count among the most futuristic and advanced habitations on the planet, with their star-scraping buildings shaped from Orbital titanium and open parks sweeping around the busy streets.

The Highriders

The African states have now established solid footholds in space; nearly one third of all space construction workers are African, and the majority of spaceport facilities and construction areas are on African soil.
The resulting population has evolved into a "national" group called the Highriders; a space-based, high-tech society linked by Pan-African roots and a determination never to be victims of colonial oppression again. Declaring their independence during the War (and enforcing it with commandeered orbital weapons), the Highrider Assembly is carefully neutral in the Time of the Red, ready to deal with all sides as long as their sovereignty (and control of space) is respected. The War barely touched the rising new cities of Africa, who were well protected by the killsats and deltas of their Highrider relatives.