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[i][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYj2hex99gY]♫...Time goes by so slowly. And time can do so much...♫[/url][/i][/center][hr]
[indent][indent]War. War never changes.

When the atomic fire consumed the earth, those who survived did so in great, underground vaults. When they opened, their inhabitants set out across ruins of the old world to build new societies, establish new villages, forming tribes.

As decades passed, what had been the American southwest united beneath the flag of the New California Republic, dedicated to old-world values of democracy and the rule of law. The Republic's growth progressed hand and hand with its need for expansion. This new manifest destiny led the NCR east across the desolate Mojave Wasteland in search of wealth and newfound resources. Resources that the Republic would find in plenty among the sun-bleached casinos of New Vegas and the greatest prize of them all, the Hoover Dam. Yet, the legend of the Courier who would shape the Mojave and the Second Battle of Hoover Dam is a story for another time. 

By the time our tale begins, the story of the Courier has become one of legend and far-off memory. The energy provided by the Hoover Dam and the great Colorado River has allowed the New California Republic's growth to continue uninhibited. This growth has pushed the NCR's expansionist and imperialistic efforts ever onward. The Republic continued to expand sharpening itself on its rivals. What it could not devour it obliterated. What it could not obliterate, it simply outlived. For a time, the NCR was simply unchallengeable. 

Until now.

It started with some sensational rumors coming from caravaneers heading south to the Hub via San Francisco. These wide-eyed traders spoke of a land of green and brown to the North of the Republic's boundaries. A place where no person would ever go hungry. Intrigued, the NCR sent an expeditionary force north past Klamath and Arroyo. Much to their surprise, the trader's tall tales turned out to be not so tall after all. Unleashed viruses and irradiation have done strange things to the flora and fauna in the wastelands of Washington and northern Oregon. Under the shadow of the branches of this prehistoric forest, a new society pulled itself up from the ashes of the fallen world, and that society had a flag of its own - the proud Fir of the Cascadian Federation.

The Federation was a collection of six powerful "city-states" of a sort centered around the de facto capital of the CF, the bustling settlement of [b][i]Sea Town[/i][/b] built along the waterfront of the post-war ruins of what was once the city of Seattle. Loosely aligned by way of economic and military solidarity, the Federation has long been the standing authority in the Washington Wasteland. The arrival of the NCR though has challenged that preestablished authority. While the initial meeting of these two powers seemed promising at first, relations quickly soured as it became clear to the NCR that the Federation was not exactly willing to relinquish its control of what has been called the "New Breadbasket of the West." These tensions have only further escalated in recent months as the Republic has begun to "liberate" smaller towns across the south of the region, capitalizing on the alienation from the Federation whose primary focus has always been on its major townships and not some has-been settlements along the border. In response, bands of unmarked raiders have attacked these settlements and while the NCR has no proof that the CF's hand was present, they have their suspicions.

And so, the inevitable and familiar shadow of war encroaches upon olf Cascadia
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You are a new hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company, the Company growing successful due to its strong monopoly over the routes in and out of New Canaanite territory along Highway 50. Happy Trails having managed to outbid the old NCR standard, the Crimson Caravan Company for the initial rights to established trade routes in Cascadia, the Crimson Caravan Company having fallen on hard times never having fully recovered after some disastrous mismanagement of their Mojave routes. You are a merchant, guard, or just some folk looking for a change in scenery. Yet your particular baggage train is different from the rest. While you are carrying with you cargo of various sorts, your most valuable "package" was, in fact, another human being. An archeologist of all things paying for an escort as they chase after rumors of a lost vault. A vault that if the rumors are true makes the squabbles of the NCR and the CF petty in comparison.

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Welcome to [i][b]Fallout: Cascadia[/b][/i], a roleplay run by your friendly neighborhood Hexaflexagon. Cascadia is a kind of soft reboot RP I ran on another site some number of years ago between the release of New Vegas and Fallout 4. That previous roleplay was fairly successful lasting just shy of three years upon its eventual completion. I hope Cascadia to be the refinement of that previous story focusing on the things that I believe worked the most. So rather than a massive wide-open sandbox experience as was its predecessor, I instead want to create a more character and story-driven game, the kind of game I find myself drifting more and more towards throughout my roleplay career. 

The premise of this roleplay is simple; you are a contract hire for the Happy Trails Caravan Company heading north towards the region known as Cascadia. Taking up the majority of the Seattle metropolitan area, Cascadia is a region under the control of the aptly named Cascadian Federation. The Federation in many ways is a strange mirror to the NCR and fittingly the two have grown weary of one another as they compete for control of the surrounding Washinton Wasteland. Your story will run tangential and collide sometimes directly with these tensions as both the NCR and the CF and the many subfactions within them will try and use you for their gain, though ultimately the narrative of the war is not the primary focus of this tale. Instead, the focus is the hunt for a lost Vault-Tec Vault, which if the rumors are true is said to be the primary reason that Cascadia is all green and brown in contrast to the rest of post-apocalyptic America.  

Experience with the story Fallout New Vegas and the rest of the games is recommended, but not completely necessary as it takes place some one hundred and four years after the events of New Vegas in the far off year of 2385. In this way,  thematically instead of post-apocalyptic, Cascadia is closer to post-post-apocalyptic in tone. What that means is that while the world did go to shit, it is starting the slow process of rebuilding itself with the emergence of new governments and unified societies for better or for worse. So while the cynicism of a post-nuclear war wasteland is still present, there is a new undercurrent of hope or something resembling it as society continues to try and pull itself upward out of the ashes. 

If any of that sounds interesting to you, I welcome you to Cascadia and I hope you enjoy your stay. 
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