The Merikan Zones
The Lost Western Continent
The Western Realm of the Merikan Zones
Location Type: Continental Coast
Alternative Name: Skyland Zones
Climate Range: Temperate, Continental-Humid, Sub-Tropical
Political Regions: Atlantica, Hyronia, Larada Confederacy, Lowland Dominion, Merikan Union, Kingdom of Vrelland
Ethnicities: Atlatan, Hyronian, K'webwa, Laradan, Merikan, Ontaran, Vril
Languages: English, French, Laradan, Spanish, Vril, Wendo
Regional Map of the Merikan Zones
Map of the Coastal Zones of the Merikas by Adam Hutka
Introduction
Collectively known as Skyland during the early days of post-cataclysmic renewal, the Merikan Zones and their bordering nations are inheritors of the civilization that existed in the North American continent before the ecological and political upheavals of the first great Cataclysm.
When I was a boy I read about the Merikas as a fictional place. I half-believed the Zones couldn't possibly exist. Imagine my astonishment to arrive on these shores and learn that the old legends of the lost western continent were true!
Detail
For most of the Post-Cataclysmic Era, the Zones were dominated by the Hidden Empire, a despotic technocracy that suppressed education and banned the study of Precursor knowledge and history. For this reason, the Skyland Zones were largely reduced to servile slave states during the reign of the Princes', who used Merikan resources and labour to sustain their power for centuries.
Since the Princes' fall, a new political order has emerged in the Skyland Zones. Inspired by documentary evidence recovered from the Washington Ruins, an independent Merikan nation state emerged to unify the Zones. In spite of civil war, political turmoil, and foreign espionage the Merikan Union has endured all challenges and risen to become the greatest power in the Merikan continent.
Expanding Frontiers
One of the important legacies of the Hidden Empire stems from the xenophobic isolationism the Princes imposed upon their vassal states. Consequently, many Merikans harbour a burgeoning wanderlust, a desire to seek and surpass frontiers and explore unknown regions.
Much of this enterprising spirit has been consumed by militaristic ambition. Seeking to secure a northern frontier upon the shores of the Great Lakes, the Merikan Union has waged a long war against the people of Larada, who occupy territories that many Merikans believe to be within the historical borders of the old Merikan Empire. Still others seek ancient wonders in the jungles of the Forbidden Zone located on the western reaches of the Silent Sea.
Regions at a Glance
The Merikan Zones are the homelands of Skyland's emergent survivor clans, who convened a cave moot during the first century PCE. Today these homeland zones are political districts of a federal republic, the Merikan Union. Though unified by a single federal state, each zone retains its own native culture and customs.
Larada Confederacy
The Confederacy is a democratic federation of four cultural groups, the Larada, the Mikigani, the Minimati, and the Neharkan Exiles. These tribes maintained independence throughout the hegemony of the Princes, but unified after the rise of the Merikan Union and its hostile proclamation of Manifest Destiny.
Lowland Dominion
The Dominion is a an oligarchic society governed by a variety of regional kings who pay homage to an overlord known as Lord Governor. Though the Governor rules as a despot, his actual power does not extend beyond the Andaron frontier. This allows the Dominion's vassals to codify their own laws and levy their own taxes.
Vrelland
West of Miss-the-Sea River, the fallow scrubland of the harsh Larada frontier gives over to an even more imposing wilderness of ash and sand. This bleak region known as the Great Mid-Western Wasteland is inhabited by the Vril, a race of mutated humans adapted to live in the most desolate post-cataclysmic environment imaginable.
Memphis Zone
Considered to be one of the historical zones of the original Merikan Empire, Memphis is nonetheless set apart from the other zones of the contemporary Union government. It is ruled as a territorial concession by the mysterious Phoenix Order, a quasi-mystical fraternity of psychic adepts dedicated to evolutionary perfection.
Hyronia
The mounted shield bearers of Hyronia rule Merika's northern frontier. Considered to be a barbaric, uncivilized race of brutes, the Hyronians are nonetheless believed to rule a magnificent city in the distant north, a Precursor citadel known as Ultima Thule. The Hyronians' many Old-Sider artifacts give credence to these rumours.
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