[b]Nation's Name[/b]: Bismarck

[b]Leader[/b]: Kane Weltford

[b]Territory[/b]:
[img]http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk12/Taunter/Bismark_1.jpg[/img]

[b]Technology[/b]: The technology held by the people of Bismarck is set over a wide-range. Left behind by the decline of civilization across the wider world the people left in the Dakotas were left with a considerable supplies of corn or soy which is routinely refined for its bio fuel. This goes into the limited lighting and heating needs of Bismarck. However with the loss of the greater power and technology grid of North America so did the bulk of the Dakota's power source and the closing of the region's coal power plants, thus reinforcing the daily demand of refined bio fuels to light lamps and generate heat.

Beyond basic heating and lighting there is still a demand in fuel for motor engines, although in certain decline due in part to end of spare part production. Although the people of Bismarck can certainly maintain trucks and other vehicles their life-time is in question with many people recognizing that in time even their ability to run them will soon end. Coupled with a generally limited fuel supply automotive travel is far from the ideal mode of casual travel and limited only to being the core of caravans.

For general travel the people of Bismarck have turned full scale into modes dominated by the horse. Hundreds of years since the taming of the west the iconic Conestoga wagon has returned to the Badlands and there's been a witnessed revival in horse riding. This means being how many within the Bismarck territories can keep a lead over the dead.

Many technological assets considered unimportant to survival have been forgotten over fifty years of survival in the Dakota north. Skill sets such as shooting, maintenance of or crafting of firearms, and numerous arts to survive the wilderness were reintroduced to the survivors. Now, many people can not claim to read, or if they can their literary skills are lacking. However what they make up for in that is a considerable field in the skills passed down from father to sun throughout the new tribes.

[b]Description of Society[/b]: Society under the Bismarck territories is largely defined by renewed nomadism after many of the smaller towns fell to the living dead. Though many these settlements have been largely emptied of their shambling inhabitants – or they themselves left – what remained was far too ruined for the already meager and thin population of the Dakotas to return to. For those that remained traveling the country-side was a safer alternative to setting down roots anywhere.

Because of the presumption of nomadism many former Dakotans have little to no personal possessions. Anything they have being owned by the band – The Ranch – for the benefit of the whole. The sciences and education have been reduced to the necessities so young men and women can pull their part sooner and education is carried out on a father-son relationship or as a relationship with the youth with the entire group, all of which assisting their maturation and capabilities.

The only place that resembles in any effort the old world is the city of Bismarck, the former capital of North Dakota. Cleaned of the walking dead by former Army colonel Kane Weltford, Bismarck stands as the effective – if informal – capital of the Dakotas. Bismarck's influence coming from how preserved it's been held as its central location as a meeting point between all the bands as they seek trade across the territories. Bismarck is also home to the largest refineries of bio-diesel, although smaller stations remain scattered across the Dakotas.

Trade in the former Dakotas is devoid of money, many goods being traded on equal weight of necessity or as gift economy of sorts. Between the peoples fuel and  the remaining spare parts can be bartered out for live-stock, skins, scrap, or metals pulled from the wilds and refined in the field.

A curious sight in Bismarck is the Avenue of Trophies on the lawn of the old state capitals, here from across the territories the heads of the slain dead are collected and displayed for all to see. With the written names of the collectors, the many thousands of hunters across the Dakotas travel to Bismarck to set out for display their fight against the risen dead in exchange for prestige and fame among the whole of the “nation”. The Avenue's central location proves an incredibly strategic with nearly every citizen of the territories having seen it at least once in their life.

The interest in head-hunting is a growing militant sport carried out by an entire caste of warrior named the Lazarenes. Taking inspiration from the Bible on the hopes mankind may be revived from death as was Lazarus with the Jesus the Lazarenes seek to eliminate the threat of the dead in a concentrated effort. The Lazarenes practice their art in a professional manner, almost like knights and take on their own apprentices as a sort of Squire. Over many years a Lazarene matures his survival capabilities and martial prowess and as such they are considered the best fighting force in the Dakotas; however the informal code of the Lazarenes greatly discourages the killing of a living human, though exceptions remain; they exist for their defense.

The Lazarene organization has come to heavily influence many decisions in Bismarck. Of considerable importance being the care of the body postmortem. Though it started as controversial and inspired considerably ire and offense from traditionally set Christian groups the Lazarenes inspired the postmortem decapitation of the body of any dead, or the wide-spread cremation of a corpse to prevent the rise of new dead. For anything that dies it must be disassembled or reduced to dust. By this reaching informal law it's become something akin to a criminal act to not dispose of any body in this matter, and may be added onto sentences.

Another group influenced by the Lazarene and in turned they're influenced by are the survivor Native American populations of the American North. Following the return of their buried dead as monsters the Lakota-Sioux, Dakota, and Lakota peoples came to the Lazarene's terms to adapt their burial practices inspiring a rise of urn burials or heavier restraints on the bodies during more traditional ceremonies. Or if not that, finally and ultimately cremating the bodies of the dead.

The Indian tribes fared decently in the new world, relative to the rest. The confines of the old reservations were breached as they fled ahead of the angry dead and they integrated into the fabric of the Bismarck territories, although to a extent they are effectively independent. Although the central political and economic position of the city of Bismarck puts them still in the firm influence of the city itself and thus as much a part of the “nation” as they were in America prior.

The native tribes were however a reinforcing demographic to the revival of the ancient customs that had for the most part decayed. Thus, the relationships between them and the white-man is of mutual survival, even if still there is racial animosity.

Finally, the territories of Bismarck is defined less by official decree and only by what they can manage in keeping clean. There is little official boundary or a point where a man may say for certain whether they have passed into or out of Bismarck. Often it is said that when one travels and finds five of the living dead or signs there-of, they have left Bismarck.

[b]Industry[/b]: The industrial capability of Bismarck is largely self-sustaining with hardly anything that may be considered an export. Held as being isolated from any other meaningful community no part of the economy has developed out to be exported and instead is focused inwards. There is some production of raw materials in the form of fuel and food product, or scraps pulled from the ruins inside and outside of Bismarck territory.

[b]population[/b]: ~590,000