By the year 2023, the world was already two horsemen deep. With pre-existing conflicts intensifying, attacks against states from an amorphous and asymmetric foe had blanketed the western world in a near state of war, while the same enemies perpetuated heated war across the Middle East, attracting the attention of the world's great power who in swallowing their prides and willingly turning their back on the old lessons learned put boots on the ground. It was a move that wouldn't lead to the victory they sought to have, and the presence of the foreign enemy at arm's reach galvanized the enemy. In the end, the enraged conflict grew beyond its borders. This was the first Horseman.

Somehow by a miracle and in the tense atmosphere the war never saw the launch of missiles. But it saw the outbreak of something else. While it may have been directed by the invisible hand of the invisible enemy, or simply found the new capability to spread and to do so rapidly familiar diseases that had taken on an unfamiliar and dangerous new trait found its way across the world. Like an influenza, contagious diseases thought exterminated swept the western nations of the world. It could not be stopped with the old antibiotic medicines so often employed. Long incubated in parts of the world where the medicines have been abused beyond the breaking point the world was ravaged. This was the Second.

The Third Horseman though was already there, twisting the strings of trade and cheating the scales of weights. But as his brothers worked with loud and heavy-handed might the roads were opened for new opportunities of disaster. With the costs of war and defense sapping funding of the developed world into defense, and the rising price-tag of dealing with the biological disaster the banks and economy started to cough sputter. Turning anemic as it caught second hand the plague of human discontent. The line was drawn tight, and set ready for the final cut by the Third Horseman.

And the fourth came. Not in nuclear fire. Not from above. But a monster from within. With a great explosion, the sleeping cauldera of Yellowstone erupted in 2023 spewing ash and smoke into the atmosphere. The toxic ash the poured forth from the Earth's mantle spread like a heavy blanket over the United States showing the country the true form of black terror. In a force not since seen since the Black Blizzards of the thirties, and never before exceeded ash fell and blanketed large swathes of the North American continent and completely covering the United States.

This was the ax that fell, the knife that cut the string of sickly economy. The collapse of the United States sent more than ripples through the world's affairs and the nations that rose upon the terrifying crests of the waves formed by its banks falling Europe and Asia so too did fall. The world economy which had so long provided peace let loose unrestrained war and the rest of the world crumbled in the last desperate gasp of man.

But if the Fourth Horseman had intended it, he had failed. Or perhaps it was enough to swing the hammer of justice one time and strike out man's knees for now. Or they wanted to keep them for their own continuing games. For humanity did not die out. And while the US and Canada lay buried under thick ash, with the world smoldering from conflict around it man survived. Man survived to recollect, to rebuild.

This was the wake of the Four Horsemen.

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[h1]RP Details[/h1]
[h2]What is Fourth Horseman?[/h2]

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Fourth Horseman is a post-apocalypse NRP set in north America fifty years after the eruption of the Yellowstone Super volcano. Much of the American heartland and California was devastated in the explosion, and under the compounding effects of international woes the collapse of the United States pulled the linchpin from global functionality. In the broader world war, terrorism, and disease has largely contributed to the faltering and destruction of the former nations of the world. In North America the end came when Yellowstone blew, burying much of America and Canada under a thick blanket of ash.

In the time after a slow but certain descent towards dissolution was underway as public and private funds rapidly dried up to alleviate the disaster brought by Yellowstone with no international support to lend aid to the US government. As a response the former federal government lost control of its territories to regional state governments or powers within the state itself.

While the apocalypse came about in the not-too-distant future, the force and effect of the eruption and the loss of manpower in the United States and abroad has rendered it unusable, either through lack of support for that technology, or through the effects of air-born ash particles in the immediate aftermath of Yellowstone.
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[h2]What does the Volcanic Ash do?[/h2]

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While the effects of Ash is mostly irrelevant in the east coast, understanding what it has done is fundamental in beginning to understand what's going on. Volcanic ash is fine, sharp,  and when it builds is capable of collapsing buildings. The volume of ash spewed by Yellowstone contributed to a period of global cooling in the immediate aftermath and the particulate matter that rained down contributed to respiratory complications, the death of crops, animals, and people. Accumulating of rooftops it can collapse homes and commercial structures. And when it gets inside electrical or mechanical components the ash seized, shorted, and all around ruined and destroys these pieces of technology.

In the aftermath of Yellowstone food shortages compound with health crisises to dictate the disaster in the east coast, attributing to the certain collapse of modern society and of modern America.
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[h2]Technology[/h2]

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First and foremost: without the backing of an international infrastructure and the effects of ash much of what we take for granted in the modern world is gone. Oil, gas, electricity is no longer a measurable factor; while I'm not opposed to some of this being in the world I want to emphasize the small use this technology should get, no lighting or fueling entire cities, sheeps, vehicles, or fleets. There are no airplanes. There are no cars. Without the fuel of the old world and the ability to refine it in the mass needed sea-faring vessels are back to the age of steam and sail. It is not that the technology is lost, it is that in the new world there are new priorities and none of them are for the near-future resumption of modern industry.

Guns and the milling of guns are capable in this world. Rifling is not lost, and technically automatic and semi-automatic fire-arms are possible. But in the end without industrial output the costs of using full-auto weapons make them costly, mind this when doing army things. Single shot weapons are reliable in their economy.
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[h1]The world[/h1]

This is the base map:
[img]http://orig02.deviantart.net/689d/f/2016/349/8/3/fourth_horseman_map_by_aaronmk-daroniu.png[/img]

Black is the American wasteland beyond the Mississippi, this is land that's so buried under ash it has not returned as everything east of the Mississippi has. Living is harsh and wild there, if not downright deadly yet in fear of breathing in lethal volcanic glass. I don't want anyone claiming land in the black, at least not yet. But it's not off-limits to play in for story purposes. Just no territorial expansion that way and no claiming to have settlements over there. Find an excuse.

The maps are broken down by their Municipalities and counties in Canada, Cuba, and the United States (though in the case of Canada it may be census areas).

And here's the territory map:
[img]http://orig06.deviantart.net/da54/f/2017/014/f/b/fourth_horseman_map_territories_by_aaronmk-das82wn.png[/img]


[h1]Application[/h1]

Name:

Location:

History:

[b]On playing just as single individuals[/b]:
If for whatever reason you want to join this RP as a single character and not a country as a whole the above application can be recycled for that. For location simply say where your character's going to be entering the story at; basically where the first post(s) will be, as opposed to posting a map of territory like for a nation. I also ask if you're applying as a single individual to say "INDIVIDUAL CHARACTER" at the top of the application as a formality.

Post unapproved apps in the OOC tab, and once approved repost them in the characters tab.