[hider=Keystone Federal Union]
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[hr][hr][h1][i][u]The Keystone Federal Union[/u][/i][/h1][/center]
[hr][hr][h3]Territory[/h3]
[quote]The Union is centered around the ruins of Philadelphia with large (attempts) at public works to try and clean the city up and rebuild. There is a robust network of settlements, outposts, patrols and caravans that connect most of the city and the surrounding area. However large areas of the city are still uninhabited either due to a lack of reason to move in or because of other dangers; the city's underground subways and sewers are especially dangerous and still require regular patrols and clean up crews.

Outside of their capital within Philadelphia, the Union also controls the suburbs and area outside of the city. The lands outside of the city are less densely populated but also cleaner and thus of great importance. There are also outposts all along the Delaware River going from parts of New Jersey to parts of Delaware.

[hider=Areas of Note]
[b]Independence Hall[/b]
[indent]The greatest achievement of the Union. The original building was destroyed during the Great War and originally there was no settlement there. But through great effort, the Union has managed to make a new Independence Hall to serve as a neutral capital that would not give any single pre-existing settlement within the city a greater position. It stand only a few stories tall but it much wider and holds the Union Senate and Speaker-President's Office. It is modelled after the governmental buildings in Washington DC (or at least made to postcards and memory.)[/indent]

[b]The Seaforge[/b]
[indent]The Philadelphia Naval Yards was once the home to the Fleet of the Founders in Old America and while it can no longer produce the might sea-titans like the Battleship New Jersey, it is still the home of the Continental Union Navy. It is a fully equipped (by post war standards anyways) shipyard, fleet base and even a young naval academy. Most of the ships it produces are more akin pre-war PT boats used to guard the waterways against pirates.[/indent]

[b]Kinoprus Army Base[/b]
[indent]The largest military base in the Union, based out of the ruins of the King of Prussia Mall (the second largest in pre-war America!) and is sometimes seen as the Army's answer to the Navy's Seaforge as it despite it being much younger, it is also a rapidly growing settlement, raising fears about the Army's intent on turning it into a military city-state within the Union that the civilian government has no oversight on.[/indent]

[b]Philint[/b]
[indent]Built out of the ruins of the Philadelphia International Airport, Philint was long considered the strongest settlement in the region, its terminals providing ample safe space for new chambers and buildings while its massive run way was turned into a rare arable farmland in Philadelphia. Philint is the New York City to Independence Hall's Washington DC, being the largest settlement and once housing multiple different factions. The only reason it wasn't completely destroyed was because the high yield missile meant to destroy it crashed into an airplane taking off. The people living inside of Philint have turned the crash site of this plane into a memorial shrine as thanks for the plane that inadvertently saved the airport and allowed them to inhabit it.[/indent]

[b]Battleship New Jersey[/b]
[indent]With the rise of Kinoprus, the Navy wanted its shot at creating a new civilian center under their control as the Seaforge's original civilian settlers had largely either moved away or been incorporated into the Union Navy. They decided to use the Battleship New Jersey, docked on the other side of the Delaware River as a pre-war tourist attraction with intent on turning it into something akin to Rivet City in the Capital Wasteland while also being able to use its massive pre-war cannons as long range artillery against the bandits and raiders in New Jersey. Unfortunately so far the process has gone on longer than originally planned and massive over budget, unlike Kinoprus.[/indent]

[b]Hospital Ward[/b]
[indent]Pre-War Philadelphia was home to several distinguished medical schools, universities and pharmaceutical companies. While many would be destroyed during the Great War, Vault 72 was located close to the University of Pennsylvania where many intellectuals would retreat to as the bombs fell, brining medical knowledge with them. Ultimately, the Vault's population would die out as a result of a Vault Tec experiment but the Union has since colonized it and turned it into the most advanced medical facility they could manage with the help of the Wasteland Aid Society, utilizing surviving medical texts from Old America. It is heavily guarded and considered one of the main pillars of the government's strength and right to rule, giving out (or controlling depending who you ask) medical supplies and treatment to its population.[/indent]
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[h3]History[/h3]
[quote]The Union traces its roots to Vault 76, located under the Great American Exhibition (formerly the National Constitution Center). It was home to a social experiment by Vault-Tec, to try and blend religion with American patriotism to effectively form a jingoistic cult that would be fiercely nationalistic and its citizens to be unquestioningly loyal to the government. Every part of the vault was designed in a way to try and encourage this, from a heavily censored government sanctioned education curriculum and walls covered in propaganda posters, to being served exclusively "American" food and blankets that where oversized American flags. It is possible that this plan would have worked as the original Overseer, Johnathon Blackwell was a model jingoistic American nationalist and worked hard to ensure "American Ideals" in his vault. However, only a year after the vault was sealed, the Overseer died after he slipped and broke his neck down a flight of stairs.

The next Overseer who was elected was actually a soft spoken teacher, Sam Tae-Young, as a compromise candidate who most of the vault had a positive opinion of, unlike the other candidates who all had very vocal detractors. Like Johnathon, Sam was also a patriot but manifested very differently, his family was originally from Korea and worked closely with the US military stationed in South Korea who grew up hearing much more idealistic stories about America and its people. When he moved to America as an adult, his was disappointed with what he saw. Now that he was Overseer of Vault 74 though, he thought he could try and implement his own brand of patriotism while taking influences from Confucianism.

When vault 74 opened in 2177, its experiment was a partial success, having successfully turning American Patriotism into a something akin to a religion. However, its followers where not raging zealots, but believers in an "Old America" that was a land of opportunity and a nation of a hundred cultures. Tae-Young's influence lived on far beyond his own death. Using the GECK provided to them, Vault 74 created a settlement around the remains of the Great American Exhibition that had some how miraculously survived when most of the city had been destroyed, seeing it as "proof" of the divine power of the Founders.

From their settlement of Exhibition, the Americanists built up their power and influence, absorbing friendly settlements and wiping out or banishing hostile raiders. Even in those early years, their expansionist ambitions where visible. In 2201, the Americanists have claimed "full settlement" of Philadelphia and constructed the new Independence Hall to act as a capital for the new Keystone Federal Union that now had ambitions to rebuild all of Pennsylvania and then using it to create a "New America". Lofty goals for sure but their faith is a powerful motivator to reunite the land of the Founders.[/quote]
[h3]Pressing Issues[/h3]
[quote][list][*][u][b]The Emancipation Proclamation[/b][/u] 
As was decreed by Founder Lincoln, "No man shall ever be a slave". The Union is fiercely anti-slavery and is the one position that they will never bend on. They often outright refuse to interact with any group that practices slavery in any way that doesn't involve a gun or a noose. While this has leant them a positive reputation among some, it also means they are in almost constant conflict with raider gangs and brutal tribes who still practice wasteland slavery, especially those found in New Jersey.
[*][u][b]Scarred Heart of America[/b][/u]
Philadelphia was the birthplace of America... and it was not spared nuclear fire. Much of the city was leveled and the environment crippled and irradiated. While the Union has managed to reclaim much of the city and set up a robust network of settlements and outpost all over the city, there are still some parts too dangerous to move around in without care, the underground sewers and subway systems especially. In addition, the Union needs more resources in general, fueling a desire to expand into the less devastated areas around them to obtain power, food and raw materials.
[*][u][b]Three Mile Island[/b][/u]
A group of Child of Atom zealots have moved into the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, turning it into a holy fortress of their faith. While the Union would otherwise let them be, the Children have begun to preach and harass the local area, setting up "shrines" of with nuclear waste infecting the area. In addition, rumors suggest that they have managed to reactivate the power plant; the potential of using it as a power generator for the whole Union becomes more and more tantalizing as population grows.
[*][u][b]Divided Military[/b][/u]
Both the Continental Union Army and Continental Union Navy have long struggled with each other when it comes to funding and political influence. They divide the Union Senate while also espousing opposing ideas about expansion. The Army believes in the going towards the "Western Frontier", going further inland to secure more of Pennsylvania's heartland and where there is less radiation overall. The Navy believes in going towards the "Eastern Horizon", believing that the Union should control all of the Delaware River and Bay while also taking advantage of many built up pre-war American coastal cities that still have valuable resources inside of them.
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[center][hr][h2][i]Additional Info[/i][/h2]
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[hider=Americanism]
Americanism is best seen though the lens of a moral guide instead of a strict religious belief system. It believes in an Old America, created by the Founders as the shining city on a hill and that though their teachings, a New America may be built from the ruins of the wasteland. It uses the Constitution as the basis of its holy text and by its nature a more welcoming and even syncretic faith, mirroring the "melting pot" concept of Old American culture. Just like how polytheistic religion are happy to interpret other gods as other manifestations of their own, Americanists belief that Old America was a "land of a hundred peoples, and thus the Founders made for them a hundred gods to worship". To them, the Founders either created other gods or manifest themselves differently to other people and are thus interpreted different. It is this mailability which let is spread quickly in its early days and even in recent times its not uncommon for people to identify as both Americanist and another religion.

Its tenants are more collectivistic, believing that duty to community and country is more important than any duty to self. Thus patriotism and piety are the same to Americanists. Just as no one Founder wrote the Holy Constitution, no one man can create a New America. Many other famous Old American figures are used in their mythology as well such as Davy Crockett, messenger and scout for the Founders, John Brown, chain breaker and Knight of Lincoln, Patton MacArthur, Grand Marshal of Old America, and Johnny Appleseed, Sower of Seed and Harvest Master. Whiles its gods and heroes can seem numerous, all know the names of the most important Founders: Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.

Outsiders often see Americanists as a strange, quirky bunch who have a very strange view of history and who often give praise to their Founder gods even for minor things. It is a common belief that Americanists view their mytho-history holy text, the Book of Americana, literally but in reality, most Americanists understand it to be symbolic and metaphorical. Only a few fundamentalists take the Americana literally and absolute.

When it comes to "evil", Americanists believe that there are three cardinal sins that cannot be forgive: Treason, Slavery and Communism. Oath breaking is highly frowned upon and breaking an oath to switch allegiances is a grave sin punishable by death and those traitors are often called "Benedicts" or "Nixons". Slavery is intolerable as it or the mention of freedom is repeated across many text, many times. Chief among them is the Constitution's "All men are created equal" and Founder Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. While Communism is counted as a great evil, modern Americanists don't actually have a good understanding of what it even is. An accidental by product of Vault 74's propaganda vilifying it but never giving an actual explanation. Thus Americanists use the word "Communist" to mean "anything unagreeable or absolutely evil". It gets thrown around a lot, especially during very heated Senate sessions.
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[hider=Old NS, here for posterity, not actually being used.]
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[h1][i]The Holy Federal Union[/i][/h1][i][h3]"By the Founders, for the People."[/h3][/i][/center]
[hr][hr][h3]Territory[/h3]
[quote]The HFU is centered around Philadelphia and its wider metropolitan area while also holding parts of New Jersey, the Delaware River & Bay and parts of interior Pennsylvania. However, the further west you go, the looser and looser the actual control of the area is, often boiling down only to lip service and a common religion.

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[h3]History[/h3]
[quote]The Holy Federal Union can trace its roots back to Vault 74, located under the Great American Exhibition (formerly known as the National Constiuttion Center) in Philadelphia. Like many other vaults, it too was an expriment set up by Vault-Tec where they would try to induce an ultra-nationalist, jingoistic belief in America, American values and American history by way of heavily censored and editted holotapes, propaganda, and paraphenallia. Every aspect of the Vault was designed to inspire American Exceptionalism in some way, everything from the posters on the walls to the meals that were served, from school lessons to the toys kids played with. It actually turned out to be a fairly sucessful effort, only not in the way that Vault-Tec intended.

Over the generations, this constant reinforcing of the idea of Old America as some sort of promise land and the Founding Father as legendary figures and history would elevate them to god-like status. A naisent religious belief in the Founders and other American figures began to spread, first as simple desires to be as strong and as worthy as the great men and women of the past, and then prayers to their spirits and legacies. At first Overseers tolerated the creed as a cultural oddity and cared little for the little shrines to Washington and Roosevelt that popped up along the halls. But later Overseers would be raised as proper believers in the power of the Founding Fathers. It wasn't until the vault door was opened and the dwellers discovered that despite the majority of Philadelphia being obliterated by nuclear bombs, the Great American Exhibition was some how spared and mostly in tact. It was declared a miracle and a sign from the now heavenly Founding Fathers that they had chosen their new citizens and proof that they existed as divine beings.

Using their GECK, Vault 74 created a settlement around what they now dubbed the "Constitutional Temple of the Founders". In those early years, it was the preaching Ambassadors preforming missionary work that spread the new Americanist faith of Vault 74 to the survivors in Philadelphia, converting the local settlements and tribes through acts of piety, devotion and (occassionally) martyrdom. It was through religion that Philadelphia and its outlying areas would be united and it would be through a theocratic-democracy that it would be ruled: the Holy Federal Union. Blessed Patriots under the protection of and tasked with the rebuilding of a New America by the heavenly Founders. And they took to this task with great zeal, building up the city and converting many once-savage raider tribres, exterminating or banishing the ones who refused the light of Washington over the Delaware River.

In 2261, then President Nathaniel O'Jones launched a holy Intervention to the west, aimed at the fertile lands held by the Deitsch Principalities in order to alleviate increasingly common food shortages at home. By the end of 2277, the Union had gained the submission of several Deitsch princes who converted to Americanism and allowed clerical Ambassadors to preach the word of the Founders in their land; those who refused had their lands confiscated.

In 2289 was a dark year in the Union's history as Ghouls, whose memory of the pre-war America often came into conflict with preaching of the Ambassadors and Americanist beliefs of "Old America", had finally reached a tipping point as a group called the Gadson Ghouls began to preach heresy and distribute blasphemous false idols, texts and artifacts. The Continental Army soon had them arrested, tried for heresy and treason and shot at dawn, executed by laser musket firing squad, but the damage was done. The Founder's faithful flock began to look into "alternative" interpretations the Constitution and ideas about the Founders. As his final act in office, President Dewitt Santon declared the "Ghoul Expulsion Act", a highly controversial ordinance that officially banned any ghoul that were of "insufficient piety" and expelled them outside of the Union. Despite this, the orthodox Federalist creed has begun being challenged by new sects such as Jeffersonian, Hamiltonian, even radical Anti-Federalists.[/quote]
[h3]Pressing Issues[/h3]
[quote][b]The Constitutional Crisis[/b] - A result of the Gadson Ghouls' heretical preaching, where once there was unity in the Founder's words and under the stars and stripes, there is now questioning and a growing schism. Jeffersonians are a particularly aggressive branch that say the Founders were not the only Gods and say that Old America was a "land full of gods" and thus it all must be reclaimed, from sea to shining sea. Hamiltonians believe that while the Constitution outlines the powers of the Founders, they also possess more "implied powers" which can only be gleamed from interpretation of the Constitution while also believing that it is possible for ordinary mortals to achieve these "implied powers". Anti-Federalists are a radical branch that states the office of President and the Synod Senate are actually heretical and un-constitutional and thus should be dissolved entirely in favor of local holy men, Ambassadors and Judges ruling over a confederation of the faithful.

[b]Military Divide[/b] - The Continental Army and Navy, while technically united and a powerful political force, are deeply divided on what route the Union should look towards in its ambitions of expansion. The Army favors the "Western Frontier", continuing pushing deeper into the Pennsylvanian heartland and possibly towards the Capital Wasteland in order to free the holy city of Washington DC from the grip of the unbelievers. The Navy on th other hand favors the "Eastern Horizon", pushing into New Jersey and wiping out the Jerseyite raider clans, gaining access to additional ports and coastal cities while considering a war with New York to claim its vast riches for the Union.

[b]The Ghoul Expulsion Act[/b] - While a destabilizing religious force, Ghouls were also the best connections to old world knowledge and technology the Union had. By expelling most of their Ghouls, they've lost even more of their actual history and production capacity as many Ghouls were factory and workshop overseers, their immortal lifespans giving them the ability to become masters at their craft. While a few still remain, many more have left the Union, taking their knowledge and expertise with them. Not to mention the word they spread about the Union as "parody fanatics" does little to help the Union's reputation.

[b]The Emancipation Proclamation[/b] - By holy writ of Founder Lincoln, the HFU is strictly abolitionist in nature and despises wasteland slavery in any form. They flat out refuse to deal with slavers in any way that does not involve a bullet, a sword or a noose and are more than willing to attack raiders and tribes who use slavery in any form.[/quote]
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