There's something about the revised Emergency Commission that just appeals to me, even if it still has massive shortcomings. I've always had a fondness for fictional cities/towns which live off a trade of literal salvage and scrap (though Port Limberlost has evolved beyond that from what I can tell.)
Yeah Port Limberlost realized that while scrap and salvage is very profitable, it's also not something that can last forever. Port Limberlost has in many ways become a general trade hub in Western Anatolia, often acting as a middleman between Crete and Western Anatolian Factions that don't like Crete. But even in 20 A.E the scrap markets are fairly large.
I love the idea of a "scrap market." Just some place where you have everything from kitchenware to wiring and pipes to tires to books to electronics and everything in-between being hawked.
Well the new Emergency Commision has a better chance of surviving now than the old one did. Even if everthing useful is taken from Tucson, New Limberlost has a good chance of surviving as a port city as long as they don't piss anyone off, or grow to big
"I remember Wilusa, not very well but some things have stayed with me over the years. I remember the blood in the streets after the American's victory, the joy on some of their faces mixed with horror and disgust, I remember the contempt most Americans gave me, viewing me as little more than my parent's slave. I remember the night we left, the fire and bloodshed, smoke mixing with the smell of salt and chickens. But most of all I remember the police officers, at the time I thought they were just warriors with strange blue uniforms, acting like conquerors who hadn't quite realized they had won yet. Now I understand them even less, they seem like an occupying army you have imposed upon yourselves." - Crown Princess Kiya Wilson, Dual Kingdom of Crete and Mycenae
"The Trojan government is not an ideal ally, I must admit, but we are far from the times when we can afford to wait for an ideal anything. The people of Troy are survivors, despite everything that has been thrown at them they have endured, even rebuilt and grown stronger. The police have fallen far, but so have we. Together we might be able to pull ourselves back up." -Colonel Philip Stephenson, American Republic of Turkey
"For a time I thought we could actually win, the city was in chaos, the Americans had turned on each other, I believed the fire was the gods way of telling us to reclaim our city, reclaim our birthright. For days we fought, street by street, in every corner, from the ruined docks to the palace itself, but it wasn't enough, we weren't strong enough. I left before the woman in blue could enact her revenge but I am told that it was terrible, worse than the conquest." -Testimony given by an exiled Wilusan noble to the Pharaoh Khyan I
"I didn't fail. I don't care what you write in that little book or what anyone says about me, I didn't fail. It was Grey and Wilson who plunged the city into chaos, I was the one who kept it alive. It was the communists who murdered my men and emboldened the traitors! It was Wilson who crippled and humiliated this republic! I did not fail, it's just everyone else screwed me over." -Chief Victoria Paris, Republic of Troy
The Republic of Troy began as a Triple dictatorship under the leadership of Lucas Grey, Rachel Wilson and Victoria Paris but a coup and Wilson's violent departure left the city heavily damaged and under the control of the former Tucson Police Department, with Officer Paris in charge. The years since have been spent recovering and rebuilding while the police department has struggled against enemies new and old.
The Triumvirate
The American conquerors of former Wilusa found themselves in an uncomfortable position in the first months after their conquest. They had control of the city but the native populace was still boiling with resentment. To further complicate matters the leadership itself was increasingly divided, each of the three leaders wanting to take the city in a different direction, with Wilson wanting to open up trade with Crete and use that to build up Troy economically, Grey wanting to begin working on the transitioning Troy to an (American-only) democracy, and Paris wanting to secure the city against internal and external (Particularly the now rogue USAF) threats. In theory all of their agendas could have been implemented without interfering with the others but the three leaders were becoming increasingly less willing to cooperate with each other. Wilson saw the others as idiots ill-suited to rule, while Grey and Paris saw Wilson as little more than a child that had forced her way into leadership.
To further complicate manners, Lucas Grey was becoming increasingly hostile towards the local population. The journey to Troy had left him with an intense distrust of downtimers which escalated into full blown xenophobia once they took the city, seeing anyone from outside of Tucson as backwards and an affront to the liberal western values of his homeland. This combined with his untreated mental trauma let him a ticking time bomb though it would take a while for people to notice.
When Rachel Wilson left on a mission to establish trade with Crete, Grey began making noises about kicking her out, Paris ignored him, largely because Sarah Myers (The mother of Rachel's Girlfriend, Jessica Myers) had made it clear right after Wilson left that she and the rest of Wilson's group would not tolerate any efforts to undermine Rachel while she was gone.
While Wilson's trade agreement with the city-state of Knossos was one of the first diplomatic agreements made between an uptime and downtime power, Grey and Paris severely cut back on it, further dividing the three.
When winter 1 A.E rolled around the city found itself in a less than ideal situation, the first Cold Summer had left them with only a meager harvest, while fishing would make starvation unlikely, rations would have to be tightened. Grey proposed lessening this by purging roughly 10% of the native population. This was far from the first time Grey had proposed something like that, in private Grey had made it clear to Paris that he wished Troy was a city for Americans only. But this time, Paris realized just how mentally unhinged Grey was becoming. Paris told him she would vote against any such measure and forced him to back down, but this would not be the end of it. Paris began going around telling everyone from Rachel Wilson to Grey's own allies what he had proposed, while also claiming that Grey was not going to back down and was willing to use mob violence to achieve his goal. This was a lie, but to Paris it would be only a matter of time before he went that far. While Paris had little more than contempt for the local population (to the point of outright ignoring any abuses her officers inflicted upon the downtimer populace) , she was horrified by the level of hatred Grey had for the locals.
Grey's openly genocidal desires had earned the ire of a great many people and Paris did not have to press too hard to get people to agree to go along with her coup. Everything was soon in place, Paris and the police expected a quick and simple arrest followed by a relatively peaceful reorganization of power.
The reality would be anything but peaceful.
The Burning Night
Unknown to either Paris or Grey, Rachel Wilson had turned her diplomatic contact with Knossos into a smuggling network, shipping supplies between Crete, various Aegean Islands and American powers in Anatolia. This combined with her increasing resentment towards Paris and Grey meant Rachel was far less attached to Troy then Paris realized. In fact several of Rachel's allies, including her girlfriend Jessica, had been privately talking about leaving with Knossos's unofficial ambassador to Troy, the Priestess Aranare. When word came in that Paris was planning a coup, it would prove easy for Jessica and Aranare to convince Rachel that they needed to leave.
Paris's plan was straightforward: arrest Grey in his home, secure the American quarter before any of his supporters could protest, then Paris and Wilson would make an announcement in front of the Palace that Grey had been forced to resign over concerns about his mental health.
Things went wrong almost immediately when Paris officers went to Grey's residence (once the villa of a local noble) and found him fleeing out the other side, Grey had been tipped off. Shortly thereafter the Police Armory was raided, much to the surprise of the few officers left guarding it. While the police scrambled to deal with that, one of the major temples in the American quarter burst into flames, the fire rapidly spreading.
In truth Paris had lost control of the situation days before her coup began as Rachel began preparing for her people's evacuation, using the connections she had made with her smuggling network to get the police to turn a blind eye towards Rachel's activities in the days leading up to the coup. Before Paris even understood what was happening, Rachel Wilson along with dozens of her friends and their families had fled Troy, the docks burning behind them.
The situation rapidly spiraled into chaos as Grey's allies began attacking the officers trying to arrest him, turning a peaceful coup into a late night shootout. The fire combined with the clear unrest in the American quarter quickly drew the attention of the native Wilusans, who began rioting. These riots quickly rallied around several of the Wilusan nobles, who had been freed from American Quarter by some Wilson's supporters. The nobles saw this as their best and likely last chance to reclaim the city from the Americans.
Not long after the riots started Grey was shot and killed by a police officer, Paris was able to convince his more loyal supporters to surrender with a promise of general amnesty but the situation was already spiraling into chaos as the American quarter was now on fire and under siege.
Paris ordered all officers to withdraw from the rest of the city, giving up everything but the American Quarter. The rest of the city could wait, if they lost the former noble quarter they were doomed. Everyone physically able to was put to work either fighting the fires through bucket bigarades or building barricades. By daybreak the fires were largely out (Save for the docks which would burn for another two days) but the Americans were still under siege.
The American quarter had its own well water and some stockpiles of food (though those had been reduced by Wilson's theft) so Paris had time to plan, time she would need as she realized the extent of Rachel's actions. Rachel's people had stolen a fair amount of ammo and some of the rifles had been broken, Rachel Wilson was determined to ensure no one followed her. This left Paris with only a few rifles, her main equipment was now pistols (of which she still had a great many) and crossbows (Both pre-Event and experimental models made more recently) along with some explosives and shotguns. Retaking the city was possible but Paris knew it would be ugly.
Meanwhile outside the American Quarter, one of the nobles had managed to rally enough support to get himself crowned King, what little was left of the old Royal family was still held hostage. King Tarhunz, named after the Luwain storm god, promised the people justice for all they had suffered over the past year and began sending out messengers to nearby downtimer villages asking for aid. He was hoping he could keep the Americans pinned long enough for him to build a proper army or at least something more than a barely organized rabble.
Three days after the siege began, the Americans pushed out of the royal quarter and into the city proper. Leading the vanguard where the police, armed and armored (sometimes even in bronze armor) they moved from street to street, gunning down anyone who might be a threat. Behind them came what can only be described as a mob of Americans, armed with pistols, shotguns, clubs and spears. They were told a simple message, "If these people win, we will all die", while this was almost certainly true, it by no means excuses the brutality the Americans unleashed upon the downtimer population, for the second time in months the streets were stained with blood.
After days of brutal street to street fighting, King Tarhunz, along with 1 in 5 native Wilusans, were dead. The rest of the native population was enslaved.
Victoria Paris was now the undisputed ruler of Troy but dozens of Americans were dead, she was dangerously low on ammo and parts of the city itself in ruin. Her victory had come at a very steep cost and left her with a very uncertain future.
Trust and the Book of Mormon
Officially Lucas Grey died a hero, killed by Rachel Wilson and her traitorous allies during their betrayal. Everyone who knew otherwise was bribed into silence. Rachel Wilson's actions made it fairly simple to blame everything that had happened that night on her, allowing Victoria Paris to maintain a decent degree of popularity. She also used the chaos to collect as many firearms as she could, ensuring the police maintained a monopoly on force. This sparked some discontent, though with most civilians out of ammo this amounted to little and after bribes, threats of force, and a few speeches about the need for public order, Paris was able to pry the guns out of most civilian hands.
2 A.E began with Troy in dire straits, two battles had left the native population dangerously low, entire neighborhoods lay empty. With the docks damaged the city's ability to fish was severely impacted and the only method of transport left open to them was chariot. This made any plans to abandon the city impossible as the Americans would starve before they could find new territory big enough to sustain them, they would have to make Troy their home or it would be their tomb. With manpower at a critical low orders were sent out, every native Wilusan able to walk would be put to work in the fields, noble and commoner alike. As a part of this Paris did seek to also limit the worst of the police abuses towards the native workers, purely for practical reasons, an injured worker didn't work as well as a healthy one after all. Though these efforts proved rather mixed. Almost all work was focused on repairs and farming, survival was at stake. Many natives would attempt to escape in the months that followed, most were dragged back by the police, after a round of beatings of course.
Then word came in of hundreds of people making their way towards Troy, another group of Americans was marching towards the city.
These would turn out to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormon Church, under the nominal leadership of Thomas J. Hinckley. The details of the Mormon exodus are a topic for a different day but in brief the various Mormon churches, having largely remained inside Tucson during the chaos of the Event, had decided to leave Anatolia in order to build a new more peaceful life in what would have become Ukraine. Even getting to the black sea was not easy at this point. Troy had great access to the Bosporus strait and would make a great staging area for a trip. Of course Troy's docks were in ruins and Paris was ill-inclined to trust these outsiders.
After Rachel's betrayal, Paris had limited trust for anyone outside of her own men and was planning on turning these people away. A number of her officers pointed out that the Mormons may have had enough manpower to overrun them if they pushed and, more importantly, the Mormons were offering food they so desperately needed.
After more or less being threatened with a coup by her officers, Paris agreed to sit down with Hinckley. Despite only agreeing to meet him after intense pressure, one of Paris's first offers was to let the Mormons settle Troy, she needed the manpower and the Mormons seemed like honest hard workers. Hinckley politely refused, the Mormons had found themselves the victims of numerous attacks during the early days after the Event, due to a combination of religious persecution and people raiding them for supplies, this combined with the general collapse of any legitimate authority had led the Mormons to decide that they would only follow their own leadership from now on. This frustrated Paris but she couldn't fault their reasons.
Eventually the two groups worked out a deal. Troy would provide the Mormons shelter and help build them the ships they needed, using Wilusan shipwrights, and in exchange the Mormons would donate part of their food supplies and help with the farming and fishing.
Hinckley's group would stay for nearly three years due to setbacks rebuilding the docks and complications with ship design. Relations between the two communities would be tense but cordial. The Mormons found the sheer brutality of the cops disquieting while the police were annoyed by the Mormon group being effectively outside of their law. Things never escalated beyond harsh words though, Both sides' leadership were keen on keeping things peaceful.
Hinckley's group would also help with the rebuilding of Troy, expanding the American quarter. They would even prove useful in negotiating between some of the outlying settlements, both uptimer and downtimer, and Troy. Allowing Troy to expand its area of control beyond just its immediate surroundings.
The Hinckley period as it came to be known among citizens of Troy would prove quite beneficial as the Mormons helped create the illusion that Troy was a safe and prosperous town. A veritable citadel of stability in a chaotic world. This image would lead to thousands coming to Troy to seek refuge in the aftermath of the collapse of the Emergency Commission and the Second Wave. So many Americans would flee to Troy that the American population now outnumbered the surviving natives with Wilusa and the surrounding region.
Hinckley's group, along with the Wilusan Shipwrights, left in early 5 A.E. Troy had far more of an uptime population then when Hinckley arrived, and the docks gave it access to the outside world. One would have to be blind to call Troy prosperous, but it had taken a few steps back from total collapse. Though its new found stability would come at the cost of a whole new set of problems.
An Armed Society
Troy's position in 5 A.E was a massive improvement over how it had been before Hinckley arrives, the state had expanded, the city itself had been fully rebuilt and had even begun improvements, the downtimer population was largely under control, and Troy now had both the brain and manpower to begin thinking about large scale improvements.
Wilusa had been a major port of trade pre-Event and while that held little interest for Victoria Paris, largely because that would mean trading with Crete, she saw Troy becoming the backbone for a mighty nation.
Of course while things had improved a fair bit for Troy, they still had a great number of issues. After the defections and deaths, Victoria's rule over Troy amounted to little more than a crude dictatorship enforced by the former TPD. Victoria knew trying to maintain her dictatorship in the face of thousands of new Americans who had little to no loyalty to her would be impossible, but her experience dealing with Grey and Wilson had left her deeply reluctant to actually give up power.
Troy was officially declared a republic on October 5th, 5 A.E, with elections for presidency, a small congress, and various local positions being held a month later.
Officially Victoria Paris stepped down as President, with her husband, Richard Paris being elected in a narrow race against several other men and women.
In reality, while Victoria had largely stayed out of local elections, she and her allies had taken advantage of the relative lack of communication between various villages outside to push the election in her husband's favor and stack congress with loyalists. And while Richard was nominally in charge, his lack of political ambition or skill meant that Victoria, now as Chief of Police of the Trojan Police Department, and various other police officers still held control over the republic.
The pretense of democracy was enough to keep the population content, for a while at least.
The biggest issue facing Troy, or rather the police department ruling Troy, was guns, specifically the thousands of guns held by many of their second wave citizens.
After Wilson's departure and the retaking of the city, the police had been able to keep control of the guns within the city. And while gun regulations made keeping that control within the city itself relatively easy, it was all but impossible to regulate gun ownership outside of Troy itself.
While the guns did provide great deterrence against downtimer attacks and pirate raids, so many civilians holding firearms left Chief Paris deeply uneasy. The police no longer held a monopoly on force, in Victoria's mind there was nothing stopping dissents from forming a mob and overthrowing her. The large number of post-Event muskets among the second wave civilians further increased police unease. While not as dangerous as a pre-Event firearm, they weren't constrained by irreplaceable ammo either. The police couldn't simply wait for them to run out of ammo.
At first the police tried more benevolent means of disarming their population. Building numerous local police forces (trained and partially staffed by Paris Loyalists) in various villages, and offering gun buyback programs that offered land, farming equipment and conscripted labor ( The Trojan term for slaves) in exchange for surrendered firearms.
These programs had limited success as even more villages far away from Troy itself were realizing the full extent of Troy's bias towards its police force. While Americans had many more rights and privileges than any downtimer, the true elite of Trojan society were former and current police officers and their families, for example a legal dispute involving an officer was certain to favor the officer regardless of the circumstances.
With the numerous guns still in the hands of civilians. Troy switched to more forcible methods. Starting in 7 A.E, restrictions on uptime ammo were increased and punishment for using uptime weapons for hunting were increased. These acts were followed shortly by a ban on gun ownership being added as a common punishment for many crimes, even more minor ones like petty theft.
There was resistance and dissent to these laws but these were relatively minor, until the 10 A.E Elections were canceled.
The first term of Richard Paris's Administration had been mixed. New copper mines and improved farming had helped the economy improve and there was a general sense the police were stopping the worst of the downtimer attacks. But the lack of much trade due to the de-facto embargo on Crete combined with Pirate attacks and the heavy handed behavior of the police had left many deeply frustrated with the regime. Many hoped the elections would give them a chance to put some competent in charge, though there were of course worries about election fraud, many hoped the police wouldn't try it again.
Victoria Paris had plans to fix things once again for her husband but the TPD were nervous about it. Richard was not a popular or charismatic man and many worried fixing the election a second time would be resisted. Many in the TPD worried their hold on politics would come under threat.
Then, in October of 11 A.E, a group of pirates led a series of attacks on various Trojan vessels and fishing villages, looting and taking many captive to be sold into slavery. One of the pirate vessels would suffer a bit of bad luck and find itself beached on shore, with a number of its crew taken prisoner by local guards. It would quickly be discovered the pirates were natives of Crete. Chief Paris quickly declared they were the beginnings of a full blown invasion from Crete. In reality the pirates had in fact been exiled by the Anax years ago and they now called Rhodes home, but that mattered little to Victoria Paris. Martial law was rapidly put into effect and elections were delayed until further notice. The police hoped the threat of Crete would serve to rally people around the flag and boost their popularity. This did work for many of those who had lived in Troy since the first wave, but for most of the second wave residents, who had moved to Troy long after Wilson had left, this was little more than a cynical grab for power and reacted accordingly.
Protests began as soon as the delay was announced in various towns, indeed many who had expected some manner of election fraud had been preparing protests for weeks when the nws arrived, there were even protests within Troy itself. For days people staged marches outside of the capitol building (the former megaron, though by now heavily expanded) and held sit-ins across the city. The protests were well organized and peaceful, the people making it clear they simply wanted honest elections to be held.
During these protests, a figure began to stand out, one Jonathan Manuel. Jonathan was a member of the Tohono Oʼodham nation and had only been caught in Tucson during the Event by bad luck. He had forged a decent life in Troy as a fisherman. Despite later claims by Victoria Paris herself, Jonathan was not one of the people who organized these protests, he was simply another unhappy citizen who's charisma and sincerity had captured the attention of many. This didn't matter to Paris, in Jonathan, she saw another Rachel Wilson
Jonathan was arrested in February, 12 A.E on suspicion of smuggling goods for Crete, he would be dead before he reached the jail. Officially, in an effort to appease the protestors, the officers responsible for his death were reprimanded and fired, though no charges were ever filed and the two officers would quickly be hired as guards at a nearby mine.
Jonathan's death would not be the end of things. Indeed protests would only escalate, and soon dozens of men and women would be arrested or found dead in alleyways and fields, silenced by the TPD to ensure their rule would never be endangered.
These deaths were also joined by violent suppression of any protests, both within Troy and in various towns. The violence did little to stop the protests, instead police found themselves met with force as protests began arming themselves. To make matters worse, some of the towns were siding with the protestors, allowing their voices to be heard freely. Along with this came a number of uprisings among the enslaved downtimer population.
This was the police's worst fear being made manifest. After the death of a number of officers, both Victoria and her husband were pressured by their subordinates into taking drastic action. An executive order was signed calling for the confiscation of all firearms from citizens of "Unproven loyalty". The resulting backlash would cripple and nearly break Troy.
The Trojan Civil War
Revolts broke out across the Republic of Troy, though the nature of these revolts were rather mixed, with some towns declaring themselves independent, others demanding Victoria and her puppet husband step down, and a few even declaring themselves the rightful government of the Republic. This lack of unity would be emblematic of the TCW overall, as multiple factions fought the Trojan Government and often each other as well.
There were of course the native downtimers, who largely simply wished to escape enslavement, either fleeing to safer lands or even pushing the Americans out of their homes
Then you had the Cowboys, a broad term for various ranchers, farmers, and herders that had risen in revolt. Most of these were men and women who had benefited greatly from Troy's generous land grants some seven years ago and while generally on the side of Troy, many had revolted in fear of what Troy's crackdown would do to their power and wealth.Generally lacking in manpower, the Cowboys did their best to boost their strength by hiring mercenaries.
Next were the Minutemen, an alliance of various American towns and villages. The Minutemen were a group dedicated to bringing democracy to the region, either by overthrowing Paris or by carving out new republics. The group got its nickname from its focus on the 2nd Amendment of the old US Constitution,citing Troy's repeated efforts to infringe upon the right to bear arms as one of their main casus belli in this conflict. While well armed and motivated, the Minutemen suffered from the beginning from a lack of organization or set goals, there were also notable divisions on politics, with some far-right elements only paying lip service to the ideas of democracy, more focused on keeping their guns then anything else.Even from the beginning, infighting and factionalism within the organization was rampant.
One of the most impactful factions in the whole conflict would be the ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) Alliance, a largely left wing group dedicated to overthrowing the police regime. While Troy was not a popular destination for left wing people during the second wave, many still ended up in the Republic either due to bad luck or simply lacking other options. The group started small but grew over the years as more and more people, particularly those in the LGBT community, began to radicalize against the increasingly conservative and autocratic Trojan Government.
The ACAB Alliance were the most direct in the actions against the Paris regime. Police officers and government officials were assassinated, IEDs were planted across the city of Troy. With one even coming close to killing President Richard Paris. The attack would leave his son, Mark, blind in one eye. The attack on her husband and son left Chief Paris so paranoid she would lock herself in her office for days at a time, only allowing trusted allies any access.
The alliance's goal was to destabilize the regime, pushing Victoria into squeezing harder until the whole thing collapsed around her. Unfortunately for the Alliance, their tactics had made many among the Minutemen nervous, with some outright attacking ACAB aligned towns and forces. Paris would also focus most of her efforts on hunting down ACAB elements with the territory she still held. In a matter of months the Alliance would lose hundreds to both Troy and the other rebellious factions.
Realizing they had no chance of victory, the ACAB Alliance made the painful decision to flee; if they could not build a socialist state in Troy, they would go elsewhere.Consideration was given towards seizing the island of Lemnos but word leaked and the island would be seized by Trojan forces in 13 A.E In the end, some fled Myceane but most ended up in Lesbos, providing the island a considerable boost in skilled manpower. The remaining lands still held by ACAB near Troy were turned over to local downtimers.
By Summer of 14 A.E, the conflict had largely stabilized, ACAB had fled, the Minutemen had begun dissolving into various factions, and Paris had put down most of the downtimer uprisings and rival challengers towards the northern and central parts of the republic, most of the cowboys had been bribed back into the republic as well, but the lands south of the Karamenderes river still remained in hands of Minutemen and other rebels. This area would become known as the Wilsonian Coast, as the Trojan government declared all of the rebel movements to be aligned or puppets of Crete and its Anax.
While the forces of the Wilsonian Coast were too divided to mount an attack against Troy, any attacks by Troy against part of the coast risked others going on the attack. This led to a tense stalemate.
But that didn't mean the war was over, far from it. The ever vengeful Victoria Paris began planning for a way to deal with not just the rebels, but all of her enemies.
A Desire For Revenge
In July of 14 A.E, a letter arrived on Victoria Paris's desk, the letter was from Crete. News of Troy's name for its rebellious southern coast had caused a great deal of amusement in Knossos, particularly for Anax Rachel. The Letter dismissed the idea that Crete was helping the rebels, instead insisting Crete "far better uses for its time" stirring up old grudges.The mocking tone in Rachel's words was obvious to all who read it.
Paris and many within the gov took the denial in the letter as confirmation that Crete had in fact been involved. After all, why bother denying it if you weren't?
This sparked something deep within Victoria Paris. Rachel Wilson had made her look like a fool, nearly brought Troy to ruin and caused damages that had taken years to rebuild. ACAB and the other rebellions had cripplied her nation and hurt her family. These crimes needed to be answered for. And Victoria thought she had a way to make everyone pay.
The island Lesbos had been occupied by a group of college students since the early months of the Event, in the decade since they had organized themselves into several quasi-Anarchist communes that lived in relative peace with the downtimers. The island was largely agricultural, occasionally trading olive oil and various home brewed liquors to other American-statelets in exchange for uptime materials. The island had suffered from a notable lack of ammo and firearms in recent years, something pirates had taken advantage of on occasion. The arrival of the ACAB survivors had done little to change that as most of them had left their weapons with their downtimer allies who stayed behind. The island wasn't defenseless but it was poorly defended at best.
Troy meanwhile still had a fair number of working pre-Events weapons with a modest amount of ammo, and its soldiers were all armed with relatively decent flintlock rifles.
Paris's plan was to launch an invasion of Lesbos, conquer the island, conscript the more pliable aging former students on the island and then use the island as a staging ground for a two pronged assault on the Wilsonian Coast, with the prospect of a two pronged war ideally either collapsing most of the tiny states that made up the region or pushing them into quickly surrendering. From there Victoria would give the former rebels a choice, they could either surrender their guns in exchange for restored citizenship or earn it back through military or civil service.
From there, Paris and the rest of the police hoped to use Troy's expanded military to bring war to Crete. Maybe not conquer them, but at least humble them.
Demands were sent to Lesbos in November of 14 A.E to turn over all former members of the ACAB Alliance to face justice for their crimes. As expected, Lesbos replied immediately with a simple "Fuck off, Jackboot".
Winter storms would end up causing numerous delays for Troy's invasion fleet, weeks quickly turning into months. But Chief Paris was confident victory would soon be hers.
On February 6th 15 A.E, the people of Troy were woken unexpectedly by the sound of cannon fire. The city was under bombardment from warships, warships with double axes on their sails, Crete had come to Troy.
Wilson and Paris, Fourteen Years Later.
Smugglers had brought word to Knossos of Troy's intent to invade Lesbos and Troy's long term goals for the island, While Rachel's interests were largely focused westwards, she and the rest of Crete had no desire to see Troy gain any strength. Some suggested launching their own preemptive invasion of Troy but this never went anywhere as most, including the Anax, considered such a bold move far too risky.
Instead, Rachel reached out to Lesbos and offered them a deal, in exchange for a symbolic tribute of a barrel of wine a year, Crete would protect Lesbos from the Republic of Troy and provide assistance against Rhodes and its many pirates. With few alternatives open to them, Lesbos accepted.
The fleet that attacked Troy was relatively small, largely composed of older Cretan Galleasses, with a few heavier ships. It didn't matter, with Troy taken by surprise, most of their small navy was sunk at port, and while Troy had a number of coastal defenses built in the years since Wilson left, they were largely for anti-pirate operations and proved inadequate against actual warships.
The battle would last for a few hours before Crete sent word asking if Troy was willing to consider a truce, realizing she had little option, Victoria agreed.
Paris met the leader of the Cretan fleet at the docks. To her great annoyance she found one General Jessica Myers-Wilson waiting for her, Rachel's girlfriend turned wife and leading general. Many in Troy still remembered Rachel's actions quite strongly, greeting Jessica with jeers and protests, but she largely ignored them.
The contrast between the two women created an interesting sight. Chief Paris's uniform, and the uniforms of the officers around her, still largely resembled the police uniforms of old Tucson. Meanwhile Jessica had a lion's skin tied around her waist and her soldiers were all wearing well polished cuirasses, with ornate helmets atop their heads.
The meeting between the Chief and the General was far from civil, Paris took the opportunity to rant at Jessica, cursing out both her and her wife and decrying them for their selfish treason. Meanwhile Jessica took the opportunity to mock Victoria, gloating over how easy it had been to plan their escape all those years ago and openly questioning why Troy still allowed itself to be led by "such a small minded old fool". Victoria had to be restrained from trying to physically assault Jessica.
Eventually the two reached an agreement, Troy would stay away from Lesbos and enact a ceasefire with the statelets of the Wilsonian Coast, while Jessica made vague promises to put a greater effort into fighting pirates. Despite the wording of their agreement, it was clearly a defeat for Troy and Chief Paris in particular.
The defeat sparked a wave of protests against the government but these were quickly put down.
Troy in 20 A.E
Most of Troy's attention since the nominal end of the civil war has been focused on rebuilding and trying to make alliances, both with some of the towns of the Wilsonian Coast (To little success) and with the nearby American Republic of Turkey (To some actual success).
Chief Victoria Paris still remains the de-facto dictator of Troy, as anyone powerful or charismatic enough to pose a threat has either left the republic or has been dealt with. Any organizations that could overthrow her have largely been driven away or driven underground. The police themselves haven't overthrown her largely due to the previced lack of anyone fit to replace her.
The last one is an increasing concern for Paris. The Chief of Police is old and tired, her hair mostly gray at this point. Her husband wants to retire and the Chief finds herself more and more tempted by the prospect with each passing year. The problem is a relative lack of viable successors.
Time has not been kind to the Trojan Police. Her second in command was killed during the Cretan attack. Many of her more competent officers had been killed by ACAB. Years of training for loyalty above all else had led to the ranks of the TPD being filled with yesmen and loyal thugs. With neither of her two kids showing any interest in police work or politics, Victoria's favorite candidate to succeed her is her husband's nephew, one Sebastien Paris.
Sebastien is a highly decorated officer who has loyally served in the TPD since 10 A.E. Sebastien is a rather intelligent man who is deeply loyal to his fellow officers, yet he remains a rather unpopular option for next Chief of Police for one simple reason. Sebastien is a trans man. While Victoria has always protected her family, her indifference towards her state's turn against the LGBT community has left many in both the police and Troy itself highly disdainful and distrustful of Sebastien.
Victoria hopes that if she secures an alliance with ART, the PR boost will be enough to force the police to accept Sebastien as their next Chief.
Meanwhile the cries for elections, while suppressed, have never faded away, and many wonder if protests will flare up again the moment Victoria steps down.
Most downtimers in Troy are still conscripted labor, slaves of the state. Those who aren't slaves are treated second class citizens at best, with few rights to their name. Lesbos and a few other groups do what they can to funnel downtimers out of the republic but the police have become quite skilled at hunting runaway slaves.
As for Troy itself, it endures, weakened and in many ways broken, but it endures nevertheless. Despite the civil war, the republic remains at least functional. Troy doesn't starve, and its streets are relatively safe for Americans (provided they don't anger the police), but after twenty years there is little the city or its people can boast of. They have endured, but that is all.
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Author's Note: Special thanks to @Chimeraguard as stuff like the Minutemen and ACAB Alliance were their ideas, originally posted in the quest. Also the Wilsonian Coast was largely their idea as well. Alright, next up will be the revise entry for The Second Wave of American Expansion
"I bear no responsibility for any of this!" Victoria Paris said as her dictatorship continued crumbling around her as a result of her own poor decisions.
Then, in October of 11 A.E, a group of pirates led a series of attacks on various Trojan vessels and fishing villages, looting and taking many captive to be sold into slavery. One of the pirate vessels would suffer a bit of bad luck and find itself beached on shore, with a number of its crew taken prisoner by local guards. It would quickly be discovered the pirates were natives of Crete. Chief Paris quickly declared they were the beginnings of a full blown invasion from Crete. In reality the pirates had in fact been exiled by the Anax years ago and they now called Rhodes home,
Interesting. So Rhodes actually let's Downtimers have jobs that aren't working as a slave? I assumed they would make exceptions for skilled work like say, shipbuilding and such, but I wasn't expecting them to support Downtimers as armed pirates.
I mean it's probably significant that these guys weren't Rhodesian Downtimers but were exiled nobles/warriors with their own ships. I could definitely see a kind of loose criminal underworld of the Nazi pirates and then other pirates doing largely the same things- especially as old dispossessed elites and reactionaries fighting Rachel Wilson and her ilk.
"I didn't fail. I don't care what you write in that little book or what anyone says about me, I didn't fail. It was Grey and Wilson who plunged the city into chaos, I was the one who kept it alive. It was the communists who murdered my men and emboldened the traitors! It was Wilson who crippled and humiliated this republic! I did not fail, it's just everyone else screwed me over." -Chief Victoria Paris, Republic of Troy
Interesting. So Rhodes actually let's Downtimers have jobs that aren't working as a slave? I assumed they would make exceptions for skilled work like say, shipbuilding and such, but I wasn't expecting them to support Downtimers as armed pirates.
These were downtimers who were already involved in piracy or at the very least had skills and the ships. So why not use them to your benefit? Nazis of course won't let them near actual power.
Welp Troy is probably going to get annexed by someone else in the near future. Possibly by Crete as a final middle finger to Paris by Wilson.
For some reason I got the idea there being a town or village on the mouth of the Danube. Whose founders did include a police officer/gulf War veteran and an LGBT college student. Only they were able to get along and the place though small is pretty successful, being a rather nice place to live all things considered. That and the uptimers actually get along pretty well with the local downtimers.
Welp Troy is probably going to get annexed by someone else in the near future. Possibly by Crete as a final middle finger to Paris by Wilson.
For some reason I got the idea there being a town or village on the mouth of the Danube. Whose founders did include a police officer/gulf War veteran and an LGBT college student. Only they were able to get along and the place though small is pretty successful, being a rather nice place to live all things considered. That and the uptimers actually get along pretty well with the local downtimers.
I am pretty sure trying to annex Troy is beyond Crete's will and ability. The population there hates them. And their strength is in their naval power which will not help them if they try to hold ground on the Anatolian mainland. At most they might annex Lesbos in the future.
Regarding the second idea, I had a similar idea but it involved the Odessa settlement making contact with the 79th rescue squadron.
Crete has nothing to gain by taking over Troy. It would be nothing but trouble has everyone from the downtimers to the uptimers would hate them. Crete would be able to do it but not worth it.
They would have a better time doing it after a century
Well, it's only the population of Troy itself that hates Crete, but the point remains that Crete has way more rewarding and less risky targets to take. Like, basically anything in the West Mediterranean.
Troy would give Crete nothing they can't get elsewhere for less risk and cost.
I am pretty sure trying to annex Troy is beyond Crete's will and ability. The population there hates them. And their strength is in their naval power which will not help them if they try to hold ground on the Anatolian mainland. At most they might annex Lesbos in the future.
Regarding the second idea, I had a similar idea but it involved the Odessa settlement making contact with the 79th rescue squadron.
Crete has nothing to gain by taking over Troy. It would be nothing but trouble has everyone from the downtimers to the uptimers would hate them. Crete would be able to do it but not worth it.
They would have a better time doing it after a century
Well, it's only the population of Troy itself that hates Crete, but the point remains that Crete has way more rewarding and less risky targets to take. Like, basically anything in the West Mediterranean.
Troy would give Crete nothing they can't get elsewhere for less risk and cost.
Yeah Crete annexing Troy is too much effort for too little gain and far to much risk. Even setting up a remotely dependable puppet would require considerable and ugly work. Crete could probably sack Troy and leave it a ruin but that really doesn't do anything for them.
Crete has it's interests and Troy largely isn't one.
I actually thought about the same thing happening. With the town with both the 79th rescue squadron and Crimea. Could be interesting seeing a place going from a collection of tents and roughly made cabins. To a thriving little town with that is generally pretty nice to live in.
How plausible would it be for a Post Event location to have the following after twenty years?
Weekly town movie nights
Pan-denominational Church
Bi-weekly townhall meetings
Daily communal meals
Primary School up to Middle School
Community showers/bath house
Town sponsored Healthcare (the doc was an animal veterinarian before the Event but still counts)
A refrigerated meat locker or storage for various foods.
Now thinking about what groups helped found and build this hype town how does the following sound?
College Students, LGBT and campus leftists
Military Veterans, Law Enforcement and their families
Mormons who ended up there on their way to Crimea
Iron Front USA/ Bikers Against Child Abuse/Forward Party types.
I am pretty sure trying to annex Troy is beyond Crete's will and ability. The population there hates them. And their strength is in their naval power which will not help them if they try to hold ground on the Anatolian mainland. At most they might annex Lesbos in the future.
Regarding the second idea, I had a similar idea but it involved the Odessa settlement making contact with the 79th rescue squadron.
Crete has nothing to gain by taking over Troy. It would be nothing but trouble has everyone from the downtimers to the uptimers would hate them. Crete would be able to do it but not worth it.
They would have a better time doing it after a century
Well, it's only the population of Troy itself that hates Crete, but the point remains that Crete has way more rewarding and less risky targets to take. Like, basically anything in the West Mediterranean.
Troy would give Crete nothing they can't get elsewhere for less risk and cost.
I do wonder how annoyed/angry Paris would have been if Kiya was sent to negotiate with Paris. Or for that matter if Rachel sent another powerful downtimer to negotiate
I do wonder how annoyed/angry Paris would have been if Kiya was sent to negotiate with Paris. Or for that matter if Rachel sent another powerful downtimer to negotiate
Honestly probably the only way to anger Paris more is if Rachel Wilson herself was there. Cause Paris and Jessica have history and a fair amount of bad blood.
Kiya or a downtimer would have annoyed the rest of Troy more though.
I'm gonna be honest here there's already a lot of leftist factions out there in the world and well while Tucson might vote slightly more democrat that isn't really indicative of a population that would establish a heavily communist or even socialist society. Sure there's the university population but even then that's maybe a few thousand people who actually know left policies off the top of their head the average American can barely name specific policy stances they support let alone political theory. I also would posit that leftist groups and minority leftist groups don't really have the established social structures that would be of benefit in an ISOT scenario maybe there's a few clubs or such but nothing on the scale of organized religious groups or other such social structures and communities.
Idk those are my two cents. I feel like there'd be far more moderate factions than radical ones because the moderate factions are far more likely to have established social structures that would help them survive the event.
I'm gonna be honest here there's already a lot of leftist factions out there in the world and well while Tucson might vote slightly more democrat that isn't really indicative of a population that would establish a heavily communist or even socialist society. Sure there's the university population but even then that's maybe a few thousand people who actually know left policies off the top of their head the average American can barely name specific policy stances they support let alone political theory. I also would posit that leftist groups and minority leftist groups don't really have the established social structures that would be of benefit in an ISOT scenario maybe there's a few clubs or such but nothing on the scale of organized religious groups or other such social structures and communities.
Idk those are my two cents. I feel like there'd be far more moderate factions than radical ones because the moderate factions are far more likely to have established social structures that would help them survive the event.
While I do agree with in general. My idea for a town was in general made up of two parts. First being a foil to Troy with it starting from a small position, relatively week position and having on a surface level of similar founding trio and a similarly good trade spot. Yet unlike Troy that had a lot of surface level advantages but squandered them the hypotheical town actually managed to be successful. Which leads to the second part which is about disparate groups that would under normal circumstances not get along actually coming together and managing to cooperate.
"The problem with copying something that was successful is that few people bother to learn why said thing was a success in the first place. " - General Jessica Myers-Wilson 'From Super Markets to the Walls of Mycenae: A History of Warfare since the Event' Published 34 A.E
"I bled just to survive in Anatolia, only to discover that's all it had to offer, survival. No chance for prosperity, no chance to make something better of myself. If I stayed I would died breaking my back just to put food on the plate. In Tucson I was nothing, in Anatolia I was even less, but in Greece, I am covered in glory and treated like a king. I lack for little as will my children. In this horrific times, what more could I ask for?" - Councilman Edward Dixon, State of New Arizona.
"I spent over a decade trying to convince myself things would get better in my town, that people would improve and we would return to something akin to how we where before, I was such a fool. The tech got better, but the people around me never did. The violence just got worse and worse. And my neighbors, they went from complaining about the soldiers were doing, to ignoring it, to even celebrating it. I saw neighbors I'd known for years celebrate a man being lynched in the streets. The look of joy on their faces as they watched the life drain out of an innocent man's eyes will haunt me for the rest of my life. I had to leave, to save my soul if nothing else." -Seth Miranda, The Free People's Federation.
"The Americans came to our shores many times, first as friends, later as enemies. They marched upon my kingdom, not as a wild mob but as a disciplined army, far more deadly than anything Anatolia saw. Many of my people told me I should flee, no one had faced the Americans on the field and lived they claimed. But I refused, Kemet was mine by right. And lo, the American invaders were all defeated, broken by my mighty army. Who else can claim such a victory?" - Pharaoh Khyan I, Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt.
The most populous post-Event states are generally located in Western Anatolia and Cyprus, in cities and towns founded and/or conquered within the first year of the Event during the First wave of expansion out of Tucson. A few thousand Americans live in what would have been northern Greece, east Thrace, and the southern Balkans as a result of USAF fleeing Tucson in the days following the Event. Most Americans haven't moved more than 75 miles from the first settlement they ended up in during the early days.
Several thousand Americans would end up choosing a vastly different path, traveling far from their second homes, often craving out states of their own. This emigration out Western Anatolia can be divided into two waves, the Second and Third. The Second spanning roughly late 1 A.E to 7 A.E, while the Third could roughly be said to have started in 12 A.E, though some argue as early as 10 A.E, continuing into the present day. The Second Wave would see Americans carve out states and kingdoms of their own from Greece to Crimea while the Third would see some of those states explode in population and new states emerge in Ukraine and the Caucasus.
The Origins of the Second Wave
As mentioned previously, the reasons for the Second Wave are varied but often relatively simple, factors such as as continued food shortages caused by lingering the Cold Summers combined with overpopulation of Western Anatolia, various kinds of persecution, a general lack of satisfaction with most early governments and a desire to put some distance between themselves and the crimes they committed in the early days after the Event, all would play a key role in motivating people to leave.
Lack of government satisfaction would be one of the biggest reasons overall, as many of those who claimed leadership of various groups in the days after the Event had clung onto power long after they left Tucson, even as their flaws as leader were becoming apparent. The skills required to keep a group alive in an unfamiliar land did not often line up with the skills needed to run a settlement in times of agricultural distress, leaving many settlements with a ruler utterly incompetent at their position. To make matters worse, many of these figures in these early days ruled their settlements with an iron fist, refusing to step down or reduce their power, which made fixing the problems they created almost impossible. This combined with the failures of the Emergency Commission led many to think that it was simply impossible to fix things in Western Anatolia.
Rachel Wilson's conquest of Knossos would prove the spark that motivated many to turn discontent into action, with many considering the conquest the first act of the Second wave. Most of Western Anatolia heard about what seemed to be one of the largest downtimer cities in the region being conquered by a small group of Americans lead by a woman who many considered barely more than a child, and to many this was proof that expanding outside of Western Anatolia was not only possible but could be done with a relatively small number of people.
Complicating factors like Wilson's smuggling operation and the semi-invited nature of her arrival were largely unknown to or ignored by outsider observers, as far they were concerned, a few guns and explosives were enough to make even mighty downtimer cities kneel.
So as tales of Wilson's conquest spread throughout Anatolia, people began to plot and plan their own adventures. The motivations for each of these groups would be different, some simply sought a better place to live, others wanted a new homeland for their faith, some wanted glory and power, while a few wanted to bring their revolutionary ideas to people they saw living under oppressive regimes.
Unlike with the First wave, most of these people had far more time to organize and prepare, this would not be a mad scramble for survival, but a much more calculated series of conquests. Of course this, combined with a number of other factors meant that most of these expeditions as they came to be known would require a great deal of planning and preparation, often taking years before they could move out.
One of the biggest hurdles for many, particularly those headed to Greece, would be boats, specifically acquiring enough to get them across the ocean. The eruption of Thera saw a great many boats in the region sunk or smashed apart by tidal waves and earthquakes, this meant that there were few ships in Anatolia suitable for transport, particularly on the scale required. A few managed to get the ships they needed by stealing from downtimer traders and fishermen, others, most notably Mormon factions and missionaries of various Christian sects, would instead get around this problem by working with various other American factions, offering their services and supplies in exchange for the ships. Sometimes entire villages would work together to build these ships, while a few more rebellious groups had to build their boats in secret. While most of these factions were able to get their hands on some knowledge of boat building, their inexperience and over eagerness in some cases lead to the occasional less than sea worthy boats, these boats would often to tragedy, such as the Hoare Expedition, lead by one Sam Hoare, which sank not far off the coast of Anatolia due to inept ship construction, killing dozens.
Weapons and supplies in general would be something of a problem to acquire, as most of these expeditions would require a large amount of resources to stand a chance at success. While most groups traded and scavenged for what they needed, the amount of resources they acquired almost inevitably put those preparing an expedition at odds with their surrounding communities. Many early statelets realized these expeditions represented a dangerous loss of resources and skilled manpower (As the selective nature of these expeditions meant that often most involved tended towards the more educated and skilled), though few of these states had the monopoly of force and popular support needed to stop the expeditions.
The expeditions would represent a major strain on most of western Anatolia, as many statelets found themselves deprived of both manpower and resources, with one expedition, the Sanford Expedition, leading directly to the collapse of the first State of New Arizona as the sudden loss of over a thousand people cause existing political tensions and instability into an uncontrollable tail-spin from which it never recovered. Numerous expeditions leaving from the American Republic of Turkey would also lead to a series of native revolts the state only barely managed to crush, leading to a long period of isolation and irrelevance for the tiny democracy. No one in Western Anatolia escaped unaffected from the Second Wave, which causes some lingering resentments and tension that endures to this day.
Though not every state in Western Anatolia would suffer due to the Second Wave, Troy would see its population increase dramatically during this time as many saw the well developed city as a better alternative to their current villages. Though as previously noted, this would cause numerous problems for Troy in the long term.
Of course launching an expedition was only the first part of a very long journey.
The Successes and Failures of the Second Wave
Most consider the Second Wave an absolute success, American control expanded from to all of Anatolia, along with Greece, Crimea and the middle east; The Hittite empire was destroyed and divided, and the Mycenaeans were subjugated. The truth of the matter is far more complicated as numerous expeditions ended in failure, sometimes utterly.
There were numerous expeditions setting out in all directions, ranging from a dozen or so people to nearly ten thousand in the Sanford expedition. Some were made up of collections of families, others united by profession, religion or political beliefs. No two expeditions were ever exactly alike.
Some of these, like the Sanford Expedition, various missionaries, and the Mormon expeditions to the North, will be covered separately, for now let's look at the expeditions in broad regional terms
Eastern Europe would prove a popular target for early expeditions, as many looked at what would have been Bulgaria and Romania and saw a land rich in resources, relatively disconnected from events in the Mediterranean but still reasonably close by sea, a perfect land for settlement. These expeditions would all end in failure as they came across the USAF remnants, many landed on the shores of Northern Greece only to quickly find themselves greeted by a force of Airmen and Soldiers.
For almost all of the expeditions, this would be their first contact with the Air Force in years, many in Anatolia having assumed they died after abandoning Tucson. Most of those who found themselves in USAF would be forcibly made citizens of whatever faction controlled those shores at the moment, those lucky enough to escape quickly carried word back that the Air Force had already established themselves in the region. Facing the prospect of having to deal with the Air Force, many expeditions decided to seek far closer targets, settling in the northern parts of Western Anatolia, eventually forming the Federal Republic of America. A few expeditions did try to settle further north in Romania, but a combination of bad luck, hostile locals and USAF control of the Bosporus strait forced all of these efforts to be abandoned by 10 A.E.
Greece and the Cyclades islands of the Aegean would prove another popular spot for expeditions, so popular in fact that only a few states in the region are the result of one expedition, even the relatively small Republic of Naxos was founded by numerous groups. On the Mycenaean mainland what often occurred was one expedition would establish a beachhead in a region, taking over a town or even a palace-city, only to quickly find themselves overwhelmed and outnumbered, depending on other expeditions for reinforcement and expansion. This would later cause numerous problems that lead to the division of American held lands in the region.
Settlement of the Cyclades would be relatively peaceful as most expeditions involved were generally less violent and less ambitious, largely seeking to escape the violence and mismanagement that dominated much of the area around the old Pueblo, with most uptimers coming to power largely through diplomacy and bribery of the local ruling elite. This is not to say that there weren't acts of violence, the conquest of Syros for example would involve a great deal of violence between the locals and the Galarza expedition, with conflict lasting for months due to the island's fortified towns. Nor did this mean things were necessarily affable between the local populace and the Uptimer settlements, but in comparison to most places, American colonization of the Cyclades islands was a largely quiet affair.
This would not be the case in the Mycenaean mainland, which between 5 A.E and 7 A.E would see brutal fighting between the various palace cities and American expeditions, with some of the Mycenaean kingdoms allying with the Americans in hopes of destroying some of their rivals. There would even be violence between Americans as the New Pima Expedition came into conflict with USAF Western Command, the resulting conflict would be short but bloody, reducing New Pima to little more than a proxy state for Western Command.
A noticeable exception to this initial violence would be in Mycenae itself, where the expedition originally offered themselves as advisors and smiths to the local Wanax, with the uptimers hoping to subvert the kingdom from within. Conflict with Crete along with the Wanax discovering the expedition's true ideology eventually lead to a bloody confrontation between the left wing Americans and the Wanax, but that is a story for another day.
A few American expeditions, most notably the Matos expedition, settled the Island of Corfu along the western coast of Greece in 7 A.E . Originally the various groups had intended to use Corfu as a springboard for Colonization of Italy. However their one settlement in Italy didn't last a year before it had to be abandoned. The Death of one of the main leaders, Thiago Matos, combined with a cholera outbreak led the surviving leadership to abandon any Italian ambitions and turn towards creating a more peaceful state.
It is in Egypt and the Levant where Americans would see their greatest failure.
Blood in the Holy Land
By 7 A.E, Hyksos controlled Egypt, called Kemet by the locals, was well aware of the Events and the uptimer, a growing population of Americans serving the Pharaoh as advisors and skilled craftsmen. Indeed so many Americans had traveled to Egypt that the Pharaoh had set up a puppet state in what would have been Libya, the Republic of Cyrenaica acting as both a barrier against more hostile neighbors to the west, and more or less as a dumping ground for less useful and more politically problematic Americans. Though in the first post-Event decade, the Republic amounted to little more than a few villages along the coast.
While a few people had made plans to attack Egypt, Indeed the air force had considered making Egypt its main landing spot at first, most quickly abandoned these plans once they realized the sheer scale of Egypt and its armies. The Air Force having abandoned their plans over concerns over getting lost and infighting. A notable exception to this would be the ill-fated Reynolds expedition.
The Expedition had been founded by Bradley Reynolds, a former army officer, Reynolds had fled the New American Republic after landing on the wrong side of the statelet's many power struggles, attracting various outcasts, dissents, mercenaries, former police officers and soldiers to his side. Reynolds did not flee aimlessly, together with his new allies he formed an incredibly ambitious plan, one that outstripped even the Sanford Expedition in terms of ambition, though it came nowhere close to matching it's size, They were going to conquer Egypt, hoping the control of the Nile would give them access to some of the most fertile farmlands in the region and an empire's worth of people.
The Reynold's family realized such a plan presented several hurdles, the biggest of which was simply getting enough men and material across the Mediterranean. Even with modern weapons, invading Egypt would require an army of hundreds to accomplish. He had only a few dozen men and women and barely enough ships to ferry them and their weapons. For them to have any chance of conquering Egypt they needed a base of operation closer to Egypt, a place that would act as both a rallying point for further recruits and a stronghold for weapons and other supplies. For the religiously minded Reynolds family, the Levant seemed a perfect choice for their starting conquest. Reynolds envisioned himself liberating the Holy Land from pagans, rallying an army of the faith and then marching on Egypt, rebuilding America and its values along the banks of the Nile. While Reynolds expected some resistance in the initial invasion, he was fairly certain that the natives of the region could rally to his cause with effort. Telling his subordinates that the Hebrews would naturally want to ally with fellow people of the book rather than serve a Pagan Pharaoh in distant Egypt. Few in the Expedition saw any reason to dissent. There was a critical flaw in the Expedition's reasoning though, the Hebrew people they thought would greet them as liberators didn't exist.
What Reynolds had invaded was the land of Canaan. The various Canaanite tribes that populated the Region were in the sphere of the Hyksos Pharaohs, maintaining close ties but not directly part of the empire. And while they were a Semitic speaking people, they were far different from the Hebrews the Expedition expected. They were a polytheistic culture, their main deity the bull god "El". Communication proved difficult and the Americans found little in the way of support from the locals. The Canaanites had far more in common with their Hyksos allies than these strange invaders. The only support the Reynolds were able to find was from some of the Habiru, a pastoralist group of people, who were often looked down upon by the settled people of Canaan. The Habiru had long existed on the fringes of society and saw these Americans as an opportunity to make a better life for themselves. But even the Habiru's aid was limited, most simply avoided the Uptimers when they could.
The Expedition quickly took over a few villages and towns, including Jerusalem (known to the locals as Rusalim) but rapidly found themselves growing frustrated, a dark and bitter mood filled them. They had visions of themselves liberating the Holy Land, acting as stewards of the region for the faithful, uplifting the Hebrew people. Instead they found a strange land full of strange pagans who wanted nothing to do with them, their only allies, criminals and exiles.
Bradley Reynolds had never quite mentally recovered from the dark days after the Event, he was prone to breakdowns and often spent hours alone in his tent, staring silently at the walls. These breakdowns and long silence became more and more common the longer they were in Canaan until one day he emerged from his tent, tears pouring down his cheeks and a manic look in his eyes. He announced to the others in the expedition that he had come to a revelation. That the locals were the biblical Canaanites, their god nothing more than a golden calf. He then declared that they would become the true Israelites, spreading their faith by word and bullet. Some were hesitant but the majority had become converted to Reynolds' particular brand of extremism. What followed was weeks of violence as the Expedition tried to forcibly convert the population of Canaan. Massacring entire villages, destroying dozens of shrines and Idols to the Canaanites bull god. The local chiefs resisted as best they could but found themselves almost powerless against Pre-Event rifles.
The Egyptian response was slow, they still had enemies to the south to deal with and the Pharaoh was nervous about facing an army armed with uptime weapons. But he knew the Expedition had to be dealt with, the people of Canaan were almost kin to the Hyksos and allowing the Americans to establish any sort of state so close to his Kingdom would be a disaster. The Pharaoh Khyan marched into the Levant with an army of six thousand warriors. The first stages of the War for Canaan were almost trivial for the Egyptians. The expedition had become scattered, divided into small groups of Uptimers leading local conscripts and converts. Some of these groups scattered or surrendered at the first sight of the Egyptian armies. Others fought fanatically to the death, refusing to even consider surrender, killing hundreds of Hyksos warriors before being taken down. Eventually word reached Reynolds of the approaching army and he quickly railed his towards Rusalim, determined to turn the city into a fortress upon which the Egyptian army would break. Bradley would not live to see the Egyptian army as he was assassinated two days before they arrived, his throat cut by a nurse named Juliet MacMurry who had become horrified by Reynold's actions, Juliet fled the city before anyone realized what had occurred.
The death of Bradley Reynolds only served to strengthen the Expedition's resolve. They believed the Egyptians would break upon the walls of Rusalim, their primitive armies no match for their rifles and explosives. Unknown to the Expedition, the Egyptians had come armed with two of their newest weapons, mortars and cannons, provided to them by their uptime advisors.
The battle of Rusalim was among the biggest defeats ever inflicted upon an Uptimer army by a Downtimer force at that time. Many in the Expedition broke at the first sound of cannon fire, most of those trained under Reynolds were long gone, having died or fled from earlier battles . The Egyptians would take few prisoners, those who did not flee would fight with a fanatical determination. While this victory would cause numerous internal problems and concerns, it was widely and publicly celebrated by the Pharaoh, who boasted to everyone that he had laid low the mighty Americans, defeating a foe that had laid low the Hittites and troubled the Babylonians. Numerous works of art were commissioned of this victory, and the Khyan was quick to use this victory as a chance to establish greater Hyksos control over the region.
Others would attempt to invade Egypt, such as the Hall-Brown Expedition of 12 A.E, but these would all end in total defeat for the Uptimers.
The Realities of Rulership
By the time the Second wave began to slow down, things had changed a great deal, the Hittite Empire had been conquered and Mycenaean Greece lay divided between various American powers, but these changes had been brought about by a fairly small number of people, Some states in Greece had only a hundred or so Americans and even the states formed out of the Stanford Expedition only had a few thousand at most. Americans were a clear minority in their new states.
This gave Second wave states a distinct fragility to their existence, one large rebellion could mean the end of the whole state. While First wave states had the manpower to ignore or enslave even the local elites of the downtimer population, those in the Second could not afford to do so, and were forced by necessity to make alliances or at least cooperate with the local downtimer population, usually nobles, priests and merchants. Even New Arizona, which has largely been content to lord over its population like lost Conquistadors, has made numerous alliances with the Wanaxs and priests of Greece.
This cooperation has often led to complicated power situations or sometimes even dual power structures, where the Americans have power over Americans but the downtimer elites have power over the downtimer population, with only a small amount of overlap between the two.
The distance from Tucson also meant many of these states are much more reliant on local metalsmiths and post-Event weapons as almost every Pre-Event item has to be traded for acquired through expensive and often risky salvage operations.
These factors have led to a common perception, outside of Western Anatolia at least, that Second wave states are more competent than those formed in the First. While arguably true, this is largely due to survivorship bias, an expedition that was poorly led would simply find itself unable to leave Anatolia, or swiftly absorbed by another expedition, or slaughtered outright by angry downtimers, expeditions were often an all or nothing gamble once you set off.
The Third Wave
By the time the post-Event world had entered its second decade, much had changed in Western Anatolia. The Cold Summers were a distant memory, farming had gone from back breaking manual labor to something more mechanized as tech was reinvented, most of the states had found some sort of stability, or at least things were more stable then they had been when the Emergency Commission collapsed, and most states, particularly New Washington and the American Republic of Turkey, were experiencing large population booms, with some states having populations swelling into the 100,000 range. While these things did make the states of Western Anatolia more prosperous, they did also cause a number of complications.
People who had been children or Teenagers when the Event happened were now adults and were finding their job prospects to be far less than they expected. Secondary and higher education were still less than commonplace, leaving many of the younger generations with an education that stopped at the high school or middle school level. Highly educated compared to the average Pre-Event downtimer but still highly lacking as far as most Uptimer states in Western Anatolia were concerned. With farming becoming more and more controlled by a few individuals and companies, this left many longer people with few career prospects beyond the military or in a factory, both of which carried considerable dangers.
Between these prospects, the population boom leaving many cities feeling overcrowded, and the political unrest in places like the New American Republic and the Federal Republic of America, many younger Uptimers started to leave. Unlike with the Second, most of those who immigrated in the Third wave traveled to already established states. Second wave states had been poaching skilled individuals since the beginning and while less sought after, as even those with a basic high school education could prove quite valuable. Many of the Second wave states had a dire need for educators, entry level bureaucratic positions, interpreters, and numerous other positions that required at least some sort of modern education.
It didn't take long for word to spread that far better employment opportunities lay elsewhere and soon many began to seek better lives further afield. Advances in ship technology meant that even with piracy from Rhodes, thousands of uptimers immigrated during the Third Wave. Most would end up in coastal states in the former Hittite Empire, particularly New Tucson and Rome. With Rome in particular seeing its American population swell by several thousand between 12 and 15 A.E, which would end up causing some political unrest. Ironically the former heart of the Hittite Empire, Hattsum, would receive relatively little immigration to due to its land locked status, though it already had the bulk of the American population from the original Expedition.
Egypt would be the second most common destination for many in the Third wave, though most would end up in the Republic of Cyrenaica, causing the republic to expand from a tiny collection of villages into a small state in its own right.
Even Crete would see its fair amount of immigration during the Third wave, though religious concerns would lead to most of these Americans to settle in Cretan-controlled Sicily. The city of Syracuse for example would see its uptime population expand by a thousand during the early days of the Third wave.
Greece overall would receive some of the least amount of Immigration, constant low-level warfare, unrest and unappealing ideologies deterred many from traveling to the region. A couple thousand would still end up moving to the region though. With most settling in the Arizona Republic, followed by Naxos and New Arizona, immigration helped to somewhat stabilize the latter for a time.
Like the Second wave, these emigration out of Western Anatolia did hurt states in the region, particularly NAR and the remnants of the Emergency Commission which have seen the most population drain. And while some efforts have been made to entice people to stay or force them to, these efforts have largely failed. With those wishing to leave the NAR simply fleeing over the border to Port Limberlost.
States of the Third Wave.
A few states have emerged out of the Third Wave, with some notable differences to their Second Wave counterparts. There are currently three of note, the United States of America (Georgia), Estados Unidos, and the Free People's Federation. All three settled in areas relatively unpopulated with downtimers, and two of them were state sponsored. Estados Unidos was founded by the Federal Republic of America as an outlet for internal dissents, a way to get them out of the picture without causing further unrest. While Americans had been in the area of Georgia since the Second Wave, these largely amounted to a few dozen dissidents from the Sanford Expedition staying in villages along the coast, elements of the New Washington Government would send hundreds of Americans to the region in 16 A.E and even build a town to act as a capital for the state. This was done both to act as a counter to Hattum and to hopefully help expand American interest in Oil rich regions to the north in the future.
The Free People's Federation had no direct sponsors, though much like Estados Unidos, it was formed by dissents. In this case it was founded by dissents from ART, and is notable that its founders were both uptimers and downtimers. Its population has largely fled ART due to the ever increasing violence towards the downtimer population. The Free People's Federation quickly gained a reputation for being a safe haven for those wishing to escape the violence of Western Anatolia, the federation would see a number of refugees reaching it's shores and absorbed a number of other ventures in the region, even peacefully uniting with group of Lukka exiles who had settled in the region.
While Second wave states are largely still viewed with contempt to outright mockery by most states in Western Anatolia, the Third wave is being viewed with interest by those in power. Several states have plans for similar ventures in the near future, hoping to stake a claim on relatively underdeveloped regions that could quickly prove quite prosperous and resource rich. Though only time will tell if any of these possible ventures amount to anything.
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Author's Note: And with that the last of my revised posts are done, I still have to edit some of the others to fit the changed lore but those are just edits not full updates. Next update will probably cover the American Republic of Turkey, which I originally intended to basically treat as a minor nation and cover in a update covering other smaller nations but I've come to realize it really deserves it's own update.
While this victory would cause numerous internal problems and concerns, it was widely and publicly celebrated by the Pharaoh, who boasted to everyone that he had laid low the mighty Americans, defeating a foe that had laid low the Hittites and troubled the Babylonians. Numerous works of art were commissioned of this victory, and the Khyan was quick to use this victory as a chance to establish greater Hyksos control over the region.
If nothing else, this right here has proved the Hyksos really hadve assimilated into Kemet. That's a page right out of the book of Ramesses himself against the Hittites, and then his namesake, centuries later, making such a War on Terror-y production out of battling the Sea Peoples.
What's funny is it could have been for them. Like the air force nearly picked Egypt as their destination and that would have been bad times for Kemet. But yeah, while not prefect, things so far have gone rather well for Egypt
If nothing else, this right here has proved the Hyksos really hadve assimilated into Kemet. That's a page right out of the book of Ramesses himself against the Hittites, and then his namesake, centuries later, making such a War on Terror-y production out of battling the Sea Peoples.
My understanding, and I maybe wrong, is the Hyksos did a lot to generally assimilate into local culture, it just wasn't enough for the local population. But yeah they've embraced the propaganda stuff later Pharaohs would use so well.
My understanding, and I maybe wrong, is the Hyksos did a lot to generally assimilate into local culture, it just wasn't enough for the local population
