ClocktowerEchos

How to Write as a Nation?

Any suggestions on policy making, writing, and the whatever that related to nrp are much appreciated.

@Shovel

When it comes to writing posts for an NRP, the most common is to have it take the PoV of one or more characters. Typically this is the head of state, getting information and letters from other branches of government. Sometimes depending on the scale of the NRP you might have additional characters filling in for other departments of governments. Like an Economic Minister trying to improve infrastructure or a War Minister worried about the nation's ability to wage war or a Diplomat conducting relations with someone else. Sometimes it might just be a random civilian or soldier if you want to get a feel for the day-to-day, on the ground look at what the big policies are doing to people.

A slightly less common way is to have it be like an After Action Report or history textbook/wiki article where the focus is on the country/state and the names of people isn't as important. This way you can write in broad strokes without worrying about character details of individuals.

"King John Smith received a letter from the notUnited States and decided to support President Bob in the war."
VS
"The Kingdom of notGreat Britain watched the developing war, finally declaring support for the notUnited States in 19XX."

That's probably a pretty terrible example but it gets the vibe across.

how do I make the policies and the subsequent situation to not be an outright nationalist's wetdream?

@Shovel

It comes with exprience and maturation. Just like how people's first OC characters are often overly edgy, mary sues or otherwise of questionable quality when looked back on, people's first OC nations can come off as overly militaristic, some how utopian and otherwise societally implausible; some how having all the resources it needs, a jingoistic and militarized population to make 1930's Germany blush, the world's most advanced military, and a free and uncensored press with no government corruption. I will be the first to admit my early nations in NRPs were basically like this with a heavy coating of weeaboism (I made a lot of notJapans.)

As to how to make policy and navigate situations, realize that no matter what setting, governments always have internal competing interests and that compromise is a common occurrence. A king might want to go to war while his vassals don't. A president or faction might have ties to big business but the population itself is going through a socialist/communist wave. A military command might think that the country is in danger by some external power and demand military build up while the civilian government insists on diplomatic channels and civil spending. This idea of unilateral support for a government's action never really happens with 100% of the pop agreeing to it unless it is some kind of absolute autocracy or dictatorship where this kind of internal politicking about what do can be more easily side stepped with "obey or get shot".

Also realize that even if you are playing this hyper nationalist country, you're ultimately in an RP. Don't stake your personal image and beliefs, this love child of a country you may or may not wish actually existed, on its success in an online post by post roleplay. Its a really small and pretty stupid hill to die on. When you RP you should be working together with the other players to make something fun and interesting; its a collaborative effort. You can play the all consuming notZerg hivemind swarm but how much you'd actually be able to conquer is still up to the GM and other players. Nobody likes getting rolfstomped without recourse so talk to people, discuss plans, collab on posts. We have the luxury of being able to know when and what exactly happens unlike in irl history so use it.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@Jeddaven Feel like Ronto would hate the HFU more the other way around; the HFU is pretty much an embodiment of the American ultra-nationalism they despise taken to a ridiculous and religious level but the HFU doesn't really have all that much interest in Canada. They'd see it as "part of Old America" but otherwise don't really have any ideological claims on it and would rather focus on going west if they ever got that big, taking control of the lower 48 first.

Relations with the Enclave are still up in the air but in a way they see the Enclave as wayward Americanists who became too secular and abandoned the Founders looking at them with a mix of pity and religious contempt.

@TheEvanCat Oh yeah, the Ghouls are not going to like the HFU. The HFU isn't any more anti-mutant than the average wasteland state by nature or intrinsically anti-mutant, their expulsion was purely religious. I'd also like to believe that at least one preacher has wandered up to New York at some point or some merchants have crossed paths in port.

It'd honestly be kind of funny to see a super mutant in a powered wig and oversized laser musket with a roll of the constitution going around asking random New Yorkers if they've heard of the good word of the Founders and of Old America.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@TheEvanCat Want to have any sort of lore overlap with the retcon now that Philly isn't a blank spot on the map? I'd definitely imagine they'd hear about this new religious wave over taking the area early on and especially once they got settled in.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

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Keystone Union of Philadelphia
_{Independence Hall}

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The three cracked bronze bells of the Constitutional Temples of the Founders, each modeled after the holy Liberty Bell with its own famous crack, called Philadelphians to morning prayer. As the sun began to rise above the horizon, the faithful already waiting outside the holiest temple in the Union made their way up the stairs and into its great chamber. President Franklin Abrams could hear the bells from his office in Independence Hall, rebuilt to imitate the great Oval Office of the White House in the holy city of Washington DC. He had been up early that morning, when the sun barely cracked the dawn, busy laboring over his desk about the request for additional funding the Continental Navy wished for.

In the Union's politics, only the Judges and the Holy Courts held more sway than the Army and Navy. As the son of a Deitsch Amish princess and a Philadelphia Shipmaster, it was no secret he was pro-Navy. The Army's "Western Frontier" plan was more than likely to bring war and devastation to the Deitsch lands, some of which the Union only barely held on because of the half-Deitschman Preisdent. Yet Abrams still couldn't move to brazenly against the Army's interests as he had been elected on a promise of compromise between the Army and Navy and was still barely half way through with his decade-long term.

The admiralty where hoping to ply his favor with sweet talk and seafood dinners, but Abrams hadn't become President by being easily swayed with honeyed words and fish. He had approved the yearly budget for both the Army and Navy, giving both an equal amounts. But it had become clear that the money the government was spending on the Army was giving more dividends than the Navy. The Army's base at the Kinoprus (King of Prussia) Mall continued to grow as traders and settlers were attracted to the military base, growing it into a civilian community all of its own. The worry in the Synod Senate by the pro-Navy Senators was that soon the Army would have its own city-state within the Union that the civil administration had no authority to govern as it would still technically be a military base.

The Navy for their part continued to lag behind with the development of their own attempt to match the Kinoprus Mall by developing the Battleship New Jersey into a strategic center from which defense against Jerseyite raiders could be coordinated from. But the act of moving it from one side of the river to the other had already gone over budget originally during the previous presidency, and that was before mirelurks were discovered in parts of the hull. The projects to repair the artillery guns back into a usable state (the reason the entire project was approved in the first place) had already been scaled back all three turrets down to just one. And it was still overbudget. Funds originally set aside for the restoration of the Walt Whitman Bridge across the Delaware River (another one of Abram's campaign promises) had to be funneled into the Navy's Battleship New Jersey plan. The only saving grace was that at least people where still willing to settle nearby, ignoring the fact that most of buildings that were popping up where just bars and brothels for the workers and sailors stationed there that seemed to be stuck in a sluggish hell.

President Abram held the Navy's letter in his hand, sighing and rubbing his forehead, "Founder Franklin, Founder Roosevelt, give me the wisdom and strength for this bullshit." The Navy was wanting more caps for... everything. More sailors, more boats, expanding the officer corps, building the battleship, paying for wages, paying for bounties for the mercenaries they contract to keep the battleship free of mirelurks, expand the young marine corps so they don't need to use mercenaries anymore. By Washington, this would all be so much easier if the Army would just step in and take care of port security but no, they had to "protect the breadbasket of the Union". Which while fair, there hadn't been any major raider incursion in well over a year. The small gangs and tribes that occasionally wandered in front of their laser muskets hardly warranted the equal budget they shared with the Navy, in Abram's mind at least.

He stood up and looked out the window. He could see the whole of Broad Street from his office, all of the carts and carriages going through. He let his mind wander, going from sight to sight. Men and women dressed in as close to 18th century fashion as they could with what the wasteland provided, typically amounting to nothing more than ruffled sleeves or collars for men and an additional piece of short cloth around the waist meant to imply a dress for women. If nothing else, it was proof that Philadelphia itself was safe, now that there was no longer a raider around every corner that the guards and Army had to look for in every alley and abandoned building.

Suddenly, a light bulb went off in the President's head. A spark of inspiration, no doubt from Founder Franklin himself!

"There were a great number of raiders and bandits, the patrols had to be increased to find them all." President Abrams paced in his office, thinking out loud, "The rivers and the bay still have as many dangers and pirates, just that only the seafolk see them on a daily basis. If the Navy finds more sea-brigands on their patrols, then that would be a result they could show to the Senate. And then I could allocate additional caps to 'expand' their patrol efforts. They would be able to use it for new ships or at least funding for the battleship."

Abrams rushed to his desk and began drafting a letter with his ink pen. The Navy was already hesitant about diverting any more of its precious manpower away from the Battleship, but by invoking the name of Founder Roosevelt, a Master of Ships in Old America, and by throwing around some of his own political sway, Franklin Abrams was confident that he could get the admiralty to sign off on additional patrols even if it meant pausing repair efforts on the New Jersey and weathering the ridicule from the Army. The President wrote furiously as the great bells rang to signal the end of morning prayer. He would be staking a good deal of political power on this order, but it was a safe bet. If the Navy caught or killed more pirates then it was proof that they could also get actual results while also looking better than the random bandit the Army sometimes caught. If the ships were destroyed then that was proof of the danger that the pirates and sea raiders poised to the Union's waterways, which Abrams would also be able to sell to the Senate as a need to give additional funding to the Navy.

"And so as the tide turns, I implore you to deliver upon the sea additional sentinel craft in which to persecute the malevolence-upon-waters that claw their savage talons upon our fair peoples. Yours truly, President F. Abrams." And with that, the letter was signed and with the ring of a bell, an aide came with a presidential raven, a black bird with a golden tassel around its neck. It would be the one to deliver the message to the admiralty at the Naval Yards, and be the one that might be the one to turn the balance towards the Navy for once.

The Final Conquest

Hey man, it's not Nation RP without aggressive gatekeeping and our hazing rituals! It's just tradition!

@Yam I Am

tfw NRPs are just really, really lame fraternities for nerds who play too much civ and replace copious amounts of booze for copious amounts of time and money spent on paradox games

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

I'm sure The Economist is going to be plenty weirded out by a cult in Philly like a few days away.

@TheEvanCat

Especially given how they literally didn't know up until this point.

Although in its defense, it probably never had to factor in "religious movements and spiritual awakenings" into stock market calculations.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

Keystone Federal Union

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The Keystone Federal Union

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Territory

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.

Areas of Note

Independence Hall

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.)

The Seaforge

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.

Kinoprus Army Base

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.

Philint

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.

Battleship New Jersey

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.

Hospital Ward

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.

Map

History

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.

Pressing Issues

• The Emancipation Proclamation
  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.
• Scarred Heart of America
  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.
• Three Mile Island
  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.
• Divided Military
  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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Additional Info

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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.

Pics for Later Use

Old NS, here for posterity, not actually being used.

The Holy Federal Union

"By the Founders, for the People."

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Territory

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.

Map

History

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.

Pressing Issues

The Constitutional Crisis - 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.

Military Divide - 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.

The Ghoul Expulsion Act - 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.

The Emancipation Proclamation - 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.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@FalloutJack I'd imagine the interaction would go something like this:

Philly: "Hey its cool to see another Americanists so far out here."
Enclave: "Yeah, I see that you too also appreciate pre-war America."
P: "Old America was a land built by the Founders and great Presidents, we seek to rebuilt the old dominion to its former glory!"
E: "That's a funny way of saying it, but yeah, we're also seeking the restoration of America. Not sure who the Founders are though."
P: "The holy Founders? Surely you know them. The heavenly Founding Fathers?"
E: "..."
P: "Okay, what about Lady Liberty, their emissary to Earth?"
E: "You mean the statue?"
P: "Do you at least know the gospel of the Founders and the words of the Declaration and Constitution?"
E: "Pretty sure we have both of those documents on holotape but we don't use them as... gospel?"
P: "..."
E: "..."
P: "Guess you traded piety for power armor then."
E: "Who tf are you people?"

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

Here be my NS. This honestly might be the fastest I've ever completed one

Holy Federal Union/Philadelphia

The Holy Federal Union

"By the Founders, for the People."

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Territory

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.

Map

History

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.

Pressing Issues

The Constitutional Crisis - 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.

Military Divide - 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.

The Ghoul Expulsion Act - 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.

War Never Changes III: Annals of the East

@FalloutJack To the people I'm writing up, the Enclave just look like people who got too enamored with power armor and "forgot" what America is