The Concert Falls

A scenario based on a game of Imperial Diplomacy I played back in 2009: www.variantbank.org/results/ru… I made an old map of this way back in the day, and I decided to update it so I could submit something despite my busy schedule. Lifting borders isn't that time-consuming. This incarnation has taken some inspiration from RoyalPsycho's Inheritance of the Draka: royalpsycho.deviantart.com/art…

Since the scenario is based on the outcome of a board game, it's quite ASB.

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The War between the States, originally believed by both sides to be a short, decisive confrontation, plunged the world into a global war. By 1863, the British, French and Ottoman empires were fighting on the Confederate side against the Prussian, Austrian and Russian empires, which backed the Union. Fighting broke out throughout North America, central Europe, central Asia and even Africa. It was, in many ways, a truly global war. The war had no decisive victors, ending in 1872 when all sides were too exhausted to continue. The world was changed in ways that none of the warring powers wanted. The Russian Revolution of 1870 ended with the Tsar abdicating and a republican government taking his place, the Boers successfully created an independent state in south Africa, and the Germans united under the Prussian throne and dominated the center of the continent.

The order forged by the American War was tenuous, to say the least. The German Reich dominated Europe like a colossus, but its dominance was challenged by the British, French and Russians. The United States, bitter over the loss of the Confederacy and part of the state of Maine, sought revenge against the rebels and the European meddlers. And in the far east, the Chinese Empire declined while the Japanese rose to challenge it. Another war was inevitable, and it finally arrived in 1903.

The Great War began as a dispute between the Russians and Germans over their common border in Poland, which quickly dragged in their respective allies. The Germans, Italians, Dutch, Turks and Americans fought against the British, French, Russians and Confederates. The war also dragged in Colombia, Argentina and Brazil in South America, the Hispano-Japanese dispute over the Philippine islands, and even a Boer attempt to create like-minded republics in Africa. The Great War proved even more destructive than the American War. Millions died in the trenches of Europe and the Americas. Entire fleets were sunk, and new and terrible weapons saw widespread use: the airplane, mustard gas, the machine gun.

Like the American War, the Great War was cut short by revolutions, although this time the revolutions were communist in nature. The red revolutions began in Italy, when protesting workers in Rome were mercilessly gunned down by local police. The workers were joined by deserting soldiers, and soon fighting broke out between pro- and anti-government forces in Italy. The revolution spread to Germany, Brazil, Russia, the Boer republics, the United States and Europe's continental empires. This revolutionary wave forced the warring powers to the negotiating table, and by 1910 a general agreement was reached to stop fighting in order to crush the communists. The revolution was destroyed in most places, save for South America, the Mediterranean, Africa and the Indian subcontinent. The defeated powers were neutralized and carved up, and the victorious had to face off against the new, communist threat.

The Russian Republic dominates the so-called Industrialist Powers, a name chosen for its implications of strength and progress. The Russian rise to power after the Revolution of 1870 was amazing, especially as they faced many difficulties against the Germans during the Great War. However, Russia's greater industrial output by the end of the Great War allowed them to triumph over Germany and become masters of Eastern Europe. Russia remains a free, democratic state, albeit one with a massive military and a worrying habit of antagonizing countries it suspects of being communist-aligned.

The United Kingdom has suffered great loss during the Great War, including most of their colonial empire. The British have held on to Canada, but only through greater political integration which has had the side effect of giving Canada more power than the British Isles proper. The British are also fairly democratic, and their old rivalry with Russia is now water under the bridge thanks to their common political ideals and goals.

The Confederate States is the token bad guy of the Industrialist powers. Although vehemently anti-communist and glad to participate in any Industrialist attempts to contain or push back the Marxists, the Confederacy sees itself as an independent partner of the Industrialists as opposed to a central participant. Because of this attitude, it often runs into disputes with Petrograd and London. Domestically, the Confederacy is a fundamentalist Christian dictatorship, a government which rose to power prior to the Great War and still dominates the Confederacy. Under pressure from the British and Russians, institutionalized racism has eroded over the decades, but it has been replaced with religious bigotry which places Protestant Christians on top of the social hierarchy.

The Japanese Empire is another tenuous Industrialist power. The Japanese have many disputes with the Russians, although they recognize that staying in the good graces of the Industrialists is the only thing preventing the Marxists from attacking them. Like the Confederates, the Japanese remain under the militarist dictatorship which has run the country since the Great War.

The big dog of the Marxist Powers is the Union of African Communes. Initially a group of black republics which overthrew the Boer governments during the Great War, the revolution quickly spread through the African continent. The UAC was extremely fortunate to be formed during a time when the European colonial powers were unable to stop these revolts, and by the end of the Great War the UAC dominated most of southern Africa. Subsequent revolutions and expansions throughout the early 20th century have turned the UAC into the great power in Africa. The UAC maintains its control over its many subjects through extreme oppression, although the UAC government makes a point of giving historically powerful ethnic groups dominance over some areas of the UAC and remaining blind to such divisions at a national level. While this has prevented the UAC from imploding, unrest is still present within areas that are not under the UAC's firm control, such as former Abyssinia and the Congo.

The People's Republic of South America dominates its home continent, and like the UAC has a problem in keeping itself together. However, unlike the UAC, the PRSA's government is dominated by Portuguese speakers, the progenitors of the revolution in South America. This has led to problems with the Spanish-speaking parts of the PRSA, especially the Argentine Socialist Republic, but in recent years the PRSA has devolved more of its power to its "constituent republics." This, along with fears of Confederate dominance, has alleviated tensions somewhat.

The Mediterranean Socialist Republic, the first communist state in the world, has become a third-rate power among the Marxists. Surrounded by enemies in northern Europe, the MSR has devoted much of its economy to building up a massive military, a policy which has damaged its commercial sector. The MSR is considering some economic reform which would loosen central control over the economy in order to deal with this problem, but they risk alienating their communist allies.

Both the Indian Socialist Republic and the Union of East Asia are far more interested in nationalism than communism, as were the revolutionary organizations that formed these states. Both states remain the most vehement anti-Industrialists, opposing the "imperialists" at every turn. Because of the dominance of particular ethnic groups in both states, both suffer from unrest and discontent, which they counter with extreme force. Mass arrests, the destruction of entire villages and the use of defoliants over farmland held by "counterrevolutionaries" have become commonplace since the 1970s.