#Future history

[sky-daddy-hates-me]

One day, students will be studying posts like this in law textbooks and history textbooks.

[thatstormygeek]

Omg. That title is painfully accurate.

[patrick270]

[winterskywrites]

Chapter ten, featuring Dick and Damian (again)!

[valhahazred]

Advances in space technology.

[spyglassrealms]

October 4, 2181: The UNSS Skyward Spirit ignites its massively powerful fusion drive in cislunar space, beginning its 24-year round trip to Proxima Centauri. Visible on the Moon are the cities of Byrd, Guǎnghángōng, Apollo City, Tsiolkovskiy, Tycho, and Shackleton, as well as many smaller settlements, all connected by the lunar rail system. Off the sunward limb of the Moon one can also spot the city-station Tsukuyomi in low orbit, with half a dozen vessels in its vicinity. Taken by an unknown photographer at dawn on the west bank of Lake Tanganyika (DRC), using a telescopic lens.

a rare Spy Art appears! photobash of the moment humankind started their very first journey to another sun in my hard science fiction setting Astra Planeta. edited in Paint.NET using a screenshot from Space Engine.

[i-am-a-megalodon]

Future archeologists will think that Apollo's Dodgeball of Prophecy may have been a real relic, and they will produce documentaries about their search for it.

[angelholme]

The Bell Riots Begin (Future History)

In Sanctuary District A, San Francisco, a series of events lead to some of the most bloody riots in American history.

However the riots lead to one of the greatest revolutions in healthcare, welfare and social care. Gabriel Bell gives his life to save the lives of the security guards and the residents from some of the more violent residents and when he dies, the entire nation is appalled and rebels against the treatment the Sanctuary District Residents are getting and against the government’s handling of the entire affair.

[victusinveritas]

[o-craven-canto]

The Vital Art

When the human species began to master the molecular machinery that underlay its own existence, the first applications were thoroughly practical. It eventually became simple to engineer viruses that, injected into one's bloodstream, would go hunting on their own for pathogens and cancerous cells, and destroy them instance by instance with a thoroughness and ruthlessness that would make an inquisitor shudder. It was not unheard, of course, that some of these viruses would escape control and become pathogens of their own, as any selfish mutant would necessarily enjoy an immense evolutionary advantage over its obedient brethren. But other waves of nano-cleaners would come to chastise the first, and it would be rare for more than one to rebel.

Bacteria and other such microbes would be tailor-made for all sorts of industrial applications. The cunning alchemies devised by four billion years of seething mutation and merciless selection could be gathered and placed together by the foresight of intelligence. Some would be sprayed over landfills and polluted rivers to break down plastic polymers, encase radioactive waste in glassy foam, strip polluting organochlorides of their flesh-warping powers. Others would swarm on metal structures and use the energy of sunlight to reverse the oxidation slowly eroding their beams; or sifted through mining waste to concentrate and purify metals. It was possible to translate any message into a sequence of nucleotides, and to store them safely in bacterial spores, packing terabytes of data in a droplet of water. All had been carefully crafted so that they could never survive within animal bodies.

Thence it was hardly a leap to cultivate animal and vegetal cells in aquaria and petri dishes. It became trivial to grow any tissue from a single cell; and soon later, authentic giant panda meat was no more expensive than chicken breast. The basest mixture of organic matter, down to dead leaves raked from a yard, could be liquefied into nutrient broth, and sown with the seeds of a feast worthy of royal courts. Rumors were heard of wealthy eccentrics dining on their own projected and multiplied flesh. (Conveniently enough, large swathes of humanity agreed that raising animals for meat was a moral outrage only a few years after synthetic meat had become cheap and satisfactory; though not large enough to prevent meat breeds from surviving as pampered status symbols in isolated regions of the planet.)

Bio-artists managed to grow whole functional organs out of stem cells; and then linked them with artificial nerves and guts and blood vessels, giving life to minimal creatures, networks of interconnected glands lying in a collection of petri dishes. These could turn food into colored secretions or pleasant scents, baring every step of the process to the gawkers. Miniaturized versions were later enclosed in a smooth carapace and sold as decorations, such as living lanterns that could produce a warm firefly light for a few drops of nutritive solution. Designing self-sustaining systems that could perform such functions on a spoonful of sugar became a common assignment for schoolchildren.

Some bioart companies released all-purpose "basic creatures" into which decorative organs could be plugged and exchanged at will, so that the same pulsing fleshsac could nourish a cluster of multi-colored lights one day, musk glands with the scent of lavander and pine resin the next, then a chitinous carillon or a battery-recharging orifice. Subcultures made a game out of the collection of functional organs. This resulted, for a while, in unpleasant exchanges of pathogens; and many owners found expensive organs swollen and oozing with infections. Specialized antibiotic vials became very quickly an indispensable accessory.

All the arts of the animal and vegetal kingdoms were repurposed for human enjoyment. Cephalopod skins were grafted onto the manufactured creatures, and stimulated electrically so that pigmented cells would expand or contract as commanded, serving as biological pixels to display pictures and videos. Swarms of fabricated insects danced in the sky in evanescent shrouds, painting streaks of light with the glow of their own bodies. Worm-like ribbons were wrapped around Christmas trees, or around columns and lampposts during public holidays, to fill the air with the colors of their photophores, or festive stridulations; artificial syringes and gular sacs modeled after tree frogs and siamangs to produce songs of staggering beauty and complexity, with an organic, animal quality that no mechanical instrument nor human voice could have produced.

Synthetic pets came into demand, offering more flattery of human biophilic instincts in lieu of the cleanliness and efficiency of pet robots. They were built at first in imitation of slugs and shrimps (without unpleasant secretions, and built to withstand the manipulation of impatient children), then of birds and mammals. Soft textures, pleasant sounds and smells, endearing features were agreed upon in bioaesthetic committees, endlessly simulated in virtual ontogenesis, and finally translated into proprietary genetic code and packed into a convenient egg. Clean and sexless they were made for families that would feed them daily with patented formulas; and others were made in less innocent places for less innocent purposes.

Brain-designing teams became accustomed to threading a very fine needle, creating minds that were developed enough to avoid most frustrations of pet-owning, without crossing the threshold that would grant them the same personhood and self-ownership granted in extremis to the last gorillas and elephants. Years of poring over the daedalus of neurons with the resources of industry and its hunger for results uncovered many secrets that would feed the next waves of the vital arts.

The following wonder was of course the return of recently extinct species, the delicate-hued passenger pigeon, the reptile-jawed Tasmanian wolf, the purple-cheeked orangutan. Century-old plans were fulfilled as ruddy herds of mammoths wandered once again the pale tundra, although they had to be relocated to a thawing Antarctica. Much clamor was raised by the announce of restored dinosaurs, which were later revealed to have been manufactured out of modified emus and hoazins. Still they enjoyed a great popularity, in increasingly bizarre forms, that eventually resembled more the drooling monsters of ancient movies than the breathing animals of the Mesozoic. They were joined by other false resurrections, the living effigies of clankering sea scorpions, wheezing proto-tetrapods, and gibbering australopithecines.

The orangutans enjoyed the greatest success of all resurrected creatures; they established a thriving population in the half-sunken ruins of a once-great megalopolis in Southeast Asia, whose surviving inhabitants had long since moved to floating swarms of pelagopoleis. For many decades the reborn apes could be sighted from the sea, sitting placidly under red shawls of fur, on the greening roofs and rusting pylons. Apparently jealous of their own new life, they disappeared quickly into the thickest brush, or into galleries believed to extend deep below the sea level of that time. Many fantastic conjectures were made about their secret existence, though nobody quite managed to probe it by force or deceit. Presumably, when the War came some three decades later, the resurrected orangutans fell for the second time into the chasm of extinction.

In the later phase, mammalian and even human brains were produced, some apparently capable of nervous activity. There were many ways to expose it to the world: in some cases it was translated into a musical codex; in others, the outer cortex was made translucent, and the flow of neurotransmitters could be seen as a warm-colored glow. A Museum of Qualia was briefly opened in a northern city, where one could experience the colors of distant longing, the textures of sexual rapture, the notes of filial love, and the taste of divine inspiration. It became simple, then, to induce the same sensations in natural brains, and make everyone into a poète maudit and a prophet of God.

Most synthetic brains were mercifully awash in endorphins for all their existence. But in one infamous case, a particularly mad artist had their farmed brain glow with neuronal activity in ways consistent with excruciating pain. The debates were fierce, on questions both of fact and moral, and after a few months the damned creature, if such it was, was disconnected from support and incinerated. Its luckier brethren followed it soon. The natural-born brains that had been stored and preserved in view of a future reanimation, which for the time trauma or decay had made impossible, were kept in storage as long as dutiful heirs or charitable organizations funded it, and not one minute longer.

This one scandal marked the zenith of popularity of the vital art, and from there it swiftly withdrew from public exaltation into the pockets of practicality -- food production, medicine, waste treatment -- where it could not be abandoned, and where people had long accepted it as normal and natural. People would still dine on vat-grown meat -- who but a savage would prefer another kind? -- and saved their loved ones from death with any necessary mean. But year after year, the breathing infrastructures were quietly dismantled or fell into disrepair, and the synthetic companions lost much of their appeal.

Many countries of the world banned the applications of the art that were not essential, and some of those that were. Quickly the wealth of volumes written on the manipulation of life became little more than a catalogue of past curiosities, a glimpse into the alien thoughts and values that so recently were the rule.

In the last few years before the War, new developments of the vital art only occurred in secret, in the laboratories of tyrants and revolutionaries, meant not for unscrupulous creation, but for exceedingly scrupulous destruction.

[spockvarietyhour]

[tlaquetzqui]

In my SF future history, the UN has given way to the Alliance of Nations. It retains a lot of UN organs (the UN retains a lot of League of Nations ones), including the IMF. In my future it issues a currency, called the “right”, short for Alliance Drawing Right, derived from the IMF Special Drawing Right of our day. Since the government issuing it is the “AN”, and it’s the currency used by everyone, its symbol is the one used in logic for “for all”: ∀. (I think it was adopted partly in a situation analogous to the creation of the Allied Military Currency and Military Payment Certificates after World War Two: the AN having arisen to replace the UN for similar reasons to the UN replacing the League, namely a big fuckoff war the previous organization didn’t prevent.)

My main aliens, on the other hand, use what is technically a representative currency, like the gold standard, but based on an abstraction: the price of enough of an idealized animal fat (they’re obligate carnivores) to supply their metabolism with a given amount of energy. A hundredth of a Planck energy is about the daily calorie intake of a predator in the jaguar-to-tiger size range, like the aliens. (Unlike most Planck units, the energy one is huge: about 2 gigajoules, because the others are so small and there’s division involved.) I’m still trying to figure out what they call it, though—might just be the “energy, dietary”, and they just measure it in actual energy-units.

I think the aliens using, basically, calories-worth of lard, as a currency standard, grew out of similar causes to the aforementioned Allied Military Currency and Military Payment Certificates, but less catastrophic. Something like, people near the forts of the various empires accepted military ration points as legal tender, so those became a standard medium of exchange, eventually spreading over their world like the Spanish dollar. Obviously, of course, you aren’t originally measuring that directly in calories, but in volumes of fat—like how the productivity of a daimyō’s domain in feudal and shogunate Japan was assessed in units of koku (about 180 liters), generally considered the rice required to feed a person for a year.

[anarcho-occultism]

Kingdom of Monsters

The Kingdom of Monsters is a country located primarily in the Cascadia region of North America and is one of the constituent nations of the Native Americans Nations. The Kingdom of Monsters is one of the oldest continuous governments in the world, being only exceeded in longevity by the governments of Wakanda and the three main Atlantean states. The Kingdom of Monsters also is notable for having the longest-reigning monarch in the world, as King Asgore Dreemurr has ruled the nation for over 2000 years. Monsters have always existed alongside humanity, emerging from Earth’s magical energies and existing alongside humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits and a myriad of other beings in the Hyborian Age. Monsters by nature are generally peaceful and sought to coexist alongside humanity where possible (even cooperating with humans in overthrowing the Children of the Night in the early Hyborian Age), though the decline of magic weakened their numbers.The Kingdom of Monsters as it currently exists can be traced back to groups of monsters living in what now would be East Asia. The first Kingdom of Monsters would undergo a schism over whether to attempt to use their magical abilities to dominate humanity or continue to simply exist. The former faction won out and supporters of the second, led by the Dreemurr family, were exiled across the Pacific to the North American continent. The monsters who remained in Asia would briefly war with humanity, but it ended in defeat and said monsters would end up trapped upon an enchanted mountain patrolled by an organization later dubbed the Monster Hunter Bureau, with a few stragglers fleeing to the Japanese island of Honshu where their descendents would ultimately help form the realm of Gensokyo. .

The Kingdom of Monsters that exists today, meanwhile, constituted itself in the Cascadia region of North America some 2,300 years ago, in what would later become the US state of Oregon. The Kingdom of Monsters existed peacefully alongside Native American tribes and additionally maintained contact with much of the world’s magical population for centuries, trading resources and knowledge with both groups. However, this peace would not last. During the reign of the Raven King John Uskglass in North England, magical insight would at once become more widely known and feared. Overzealous members of the Shadowhunter organization, under the leadership of Lord Gillecomgain, were actively seeking to overthrow the Raven King. To that end, Gillecomgain wanted to eliminate as many magical forces he viewed as aligned to Uskglass, no matter where they might be. Gillecomgain discovered the existence of the Kingdom of Monsters from a Muggleborn wizard who had been involved in trade with the Kingdom, but had defected to the hardline Shadowhunters owing to a strong religious upbringing and the belief that the Kingdom of Monsters was in fact an outpost of demons. Gillecomgain used the wizard’s magical abilities to send an army to the North American continent to confront the Kingdom. Initial attempts at diplomatic overtures by the monsters soon yielded to a massacre. The Kingdom of Monsters’ forces fought bravely and did receive some aid–a few pupils of Uskglass’ acolytes attempted to help the monsters fend off the attack–but in the end, with the humans having a stronger brutality, the outcome was never truly in doubt. Ultimately, the Kingdom of Monsters surrendered to Gillecomgain’s forces. The Muggle-born magician who had led Gillecomgain to them banded with a group of 6 other magicians to cast a powerful spell to seal Asgore and the bulk of the Kingdom’s population underneath a mountain behind a barrier that would require the strength of seven human souls to break down.

However, the Gillecomgain expedition did not realize they had failed to kill or capture all of the Kingdom’s population. One island in a nearby river had been settled by monsters who fled there en masse as the island was in fact Unplottable. Other monsters scattered to the woods or used their abilities to camouflage themselves from their human attackers. Some would make their way south and end up in the parallel, more accepting worlds of Xanth and Halloweentown or to isolated refuges such as the Island of Wild Things, Midian or the Nightside. The Mimiga tribe would flee west and end up colonizing a floating island that was close to the coast and remain there for centuries to come. Another tribe of monsters, known as the Muppets, avoided further human persecution by claiming to be a magical race of puppets when discovered and venturing into entertainment over the centuries. The monsters on the Unplottable island would build a large city dubbed Monsteropolis there, which eventually became quite advanced and would develop the ability to use human emotions as a source of energy. Originally this was limited to fear and was risky to obtain as monsters had to be sent to human cities to obtain it (initially spearheaded by the likes of The Gromble), but first it became possible to access human residences using portal technology and then to obtain energy from alternative emotions. Many monsters sought to hide their existence and simply live as best they could. Other monsters left behind would become more hostile to humans, longing for revenge by terrorizing those who had once persecuted them. Descendants of these vengeful monsters would often violently target humans–some of them would form the deathtrap theme park known as Horrorland in the name of vengeance.

While the surviving monsters above ground managed to get by, the bulk of monsters trapped beneath the surface could do little but try to maintain some form of positive existence while waiting for the chance to make it to the surface. One day–several centuries after they were sealed underground, well into the European colonization of North America–a child named Chara would fall underground. The child was adopted by King Asgore and Queen Toriel, becoming a surrogate sibling for the heir apparent Asriel. Chara’s personality and character remain somewhat unclear–monsters old enough to recall them often struggle to even identify Chara’s gender–but there was hope that Chara and Asriel might somehow together break the monsters free from their underground prison. When the two died at the hands of humans just outside the mountain that had only recently been dubbed Mount Ebott in a failed attempt to break down the barrier, the Kingdom of Monsters fell into despair. The King Asgore declared war upon humanity and that he would on breaking the barrier eliminate humankind. However, this plan would fail as Asgore’s declaration was ultimately not one he truly wanted to stand by, though six humans who fell underground ended up falling to his or to other monsters’ attacks. However, in the end, the seventh human to fall underground would end up enabling the destruction of the Mount Ebott barrier without dying themself. When the Kingdom of Monsters reemerged into the world, making contact with humans was the first step. In this, the Kingdom ended up fortunate that the nearest town was Gravity Falls, which while a small town was far more aware of and accepting towards nonhuman sentient beings owing to a large supernatural population. This allowed for peaceful first contact to ultimately be established with the United States government.

There was a decent amount of uncertainty about how to proceed from the American government. President Frank Underwood was a personally ruthless, power-hungry man who one would most expect to react violently to the sudden emergence of thousands of monsters claiming national sovereignty within American borders. However, Underwood hesitated in large part because of his tendency towards ruthless power-seeking. The President was beleaguered by scandal–the fact he had gotten to this office after his predecessor James Sawyer resigned, the failure of his government to halt the Washington brain slug infestation or the Galactic Federation conquest of Earth and accusations of general corruption on his part dragged down his reputation in general. Underwood also had, in the year or so since becoming president, alienated large swathes of his party by signing off on the hard right’s push for an annual Purge Night, actively supporting the behemothic E Corp against critics and launching military interventions in Israel and Abbudin. As a result, the President–who despite claims to the contrary intended to seek reelection–was very vulnerable to left-wing criticism that could have increased momentum for a primary challenge from the likes of Julian Felsenburgh, Carly Armisten or another contender from the party’s progressive wing, which could include endorsements from the more stridently liberal Bartlet wing of the party. Underwood thus saw in the emergence of the Kingdom of Monsters the chance to appease left-wingers in his party by dealing with these nonhumans diplomatically rather than using force. Negotiations would be held in Gravity Falls over the future status of the Kingdom, which gained additional strength when Monsteropolis revealed its existence and announced its intent to rejoin the Kingdom of Monsters, more than doubling the population. Initial negotiations were based on making the Kingdom of Monsters a reservation with autonomy modeled on the arrangement the US had made with the Hork-Bajir over a decade prior. However, these plans hit a snag when Deputy White House Counsel Elle Woods noted the Kingdom’s maintenance of a monarchy would likely violate the US Constitution’s guarantee of a republican form of government. As a result, what ended up happening in the Treaty of Gravity Falls was that the Kingdom of Monsters was granted independence as a microstate and control of around 30 square miles of land encompassing a territory stretching from Mount Ebott to the island Monsteropolis was based on.

The Kingdom of Monsters, despite its small territory, was able to develop decently in the early years following its emergence. A capital was founded at the foot of Mount Ebbott and dubbed Hometown by King Asgore. Diplomacy with the US was largely carried out in Gravity Falls between the seventh human Frisk Dreemurr (who had been adopted by Queen Toriel) and former US President Quentin Trembley, an eccentric wizard who had founded the town. The economy was able to take off in the immediate aftermath of recognition, bolstered by vast reserves of gold and the curiosity of outsiders. The White Council and a large team of Miskatonic University scholars paid quite a large amount of money for access to texts detailing the history, culture and magical practices of the Kingdom of Monsters. Close ties were forged between the Kingdom and the nation of Japan, despite the vast distance, owing in part to Tetsuo Takahashi’s well-read overview of the Kingdom’s history from a sympathetic perspective, the backlash to the human supremacist Prime Minister Masayoshi Shido who was ousted from power a year after the Kingdom of Monsters reemerged and the popularity of the Kingdom celebrity Mettaton with Japanese audiences (which mirrored a longstanding fascination many monsters had for Japanese anime, manga and video games that had been obtained while they were trapped underground). A number of monsters from elsewhere would seek citizenship with the Kingdom of Monsters even without emigrating to the actual territory it encompassed and existing institutions such as the Monstersori Schools would end up becoming established within the Kingdom’s borders. The number of citizens of the Kingdom would reach 100,000 by 2016, with only about half that number residing within its borders. However, trouble was clearly present on the horizon. In the 2016 election, Republican candidate Herbert Garrison openly declared his intent to re-annex the Kingdom and destroy its inhabitants. Garrison’s victory sparked widespread fear within the Kingdom and a mobilization of the Royal Guard in anticipation of a possible invasion. However, Garrison’s impeachment staved off this threat and, while many political leaders continued to denounce the Kingdom’s existence, all presidents who filled the remainder of Garrison’s term respected the Kingdom’s sovereignty. Still, Asgore’s government would build ties to other supernatural communities to have allies in case a future US government attempted to actually invade.

Ultimately, this feared invasion would never fully take place though the groundwork was laid. After the 2022 ascension of defeated 2020 presidential candidate David Jefferson Adams, it seemed inevitable that the Kingdom would be invaded. Adams had run with the support of human supremacist groups such as the Defenders, who advocated for the destruction of the Kingdom of Monsters–and indeed all of monsterkind–in retaliation for the deaths of the first six humans to fall underground. Tensions between the new US government and the Kingdom of Monsters only heightened when Adams dissolved the Hork-Bajir reservation, stripped all Hork-Bajir of US citizenship and announced plans to ‘repatriate’ them, which likely was a ploy aiming to end in genocide. However, Asgore extended an offer of citizenship within the Kingdom of Monsters to the Hork-Bajir and, with the help of ACLU attorney Cher Horowitz, was able to secure the transportation of the vast majority of Hork-Bajir to the Kingdom. This action affronted Adams and war seemed mere weeks–or even days–away. The Kingdom of Monsters, however, would not be directly invaded. Instead, in November 2022, members of the Native American Nations movement approached the Kingdom of Monsters. The NAN leaders shared their plan to organize a large-scale uprising within the Pacific Northwest with the aid of various magical practitioners, participants in the Left Eye organization based in Portland and the Ecotopia commune, residents of the scientifically advanced town of Eureka, and various supernatural partners such as the therianthrope Quileutes of Forks, the ‘Fowl faction’ of the People, a tribe of Amazons based out of Seattle and a band of the Children of the Night led by one known simply as Harry. The Kingdom of Monsters accepted this lifeline and before mobilization could get too underway by the US military forces or their deputized ‘Christian Marines’, the NAN and their partners launched a full-scale uprising. The magic of the monsters within the Kingdom was bolstered by the NAN’s own magicians as well as aid from NAN sympathizers within groups like the White Council and the Magical Congress of the United States, who remained nominally neutral.

In the end, the insurgency of the NAN proved too much for the US government to handle and the US was forced to recognize the NAN’s independence. The NAN would reorganize its territory to accommodate various tribal claims as well as its allies’, including the Kingdom of Monsters. The Kingdom underwent decent territorial expansion as Gravity Falls and its surrounding environs were incorporated into the Kingdom’s territory. Post-Ghost Dance War, the Kingdom of Monsters would become a beacon to many nonhuman sentient beings facing persecution in the US and abroad. The Kingdom of Monsters did draw some immigrants before the next big crisis hit. Following the 2025 Inauguration Day bombings and the Allied States of America’s attempted ‘retaliation’, the Greater Korean Republic launched an invasion of the West Coast of North America. GKR forces would occupy much of the coast and NAN forces in the former Oregon region largely would regroup within the Kingdom of Monsters’ territory. The monsters of the Kingdom of Monsters who directly fought the GKR forces were largely enchanted by human allies to endow them with increased strength (thought at least one of the Kingdom’s soldiers, a skeleton, was able to counter GKR forces with relative ease without any enchantments owing to unusually skilled agility). In the end, the collapse of GKR forces and the NAN resurgence secured the Kingdom of Monsters’ continued existence within the NAN, which persists to this day. While the Kingdom is not without controversy–many have argued that Asgore’s continued rule is tyrannical and, owing to his actions prior to the destruction of the Mount Ebott barrier, unjust–for the time being it appears the Kingdom of Monsters is determined to continue to exist.

References

Undertale, Shadowrun, Marvel Comics (Black Panther, Namor The Sub-Mariner), DC Comics (Aquaman), Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Lord of the Rings, Conan the Barbarian, SCP Foundation, Monster Hunt, Touhou Project, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, The Mortal Instruments, Gargoyles, Harry Potter, Xanth Series, Halloweentown, Where the Wild Things Are, Nightbreed, Nightside, Cave Story, The Muppets, Monsters Inc., Aaaahh!!!! Real Monsters, Goosebumps, Gravity Falls, House of Cards US, White House Down, BrainDead, Rick and Morty, The Purge, Mr. Robot, Tyrant, Lord of the World, Alpha House, The West Wing, Animorphs, Legally Blonde, Deltarune, The Dresden Files, Cthulhu Mythos, Interviews With Monster Girls, Persona 5, Avenue Q, South Park, Shattered Union, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Clueless, Sorry to Bother You, Ecotopia, Eureka, Twilight, Artemis Fowl, The Heroes of Olympus, Harry and the Hendersons, Victoria, Jericho, Homefront

[arthurdrakoni]

Flag of Ecotopia

This is the flag of Ecotopia.  It comes from a world where man-made climate change were not reversed.  Rising sea levels and changing weather patterns took their toll on many nations, but in particular the United States.  Climate change, resource wars, civil unrest and general strife strained America's resources to their limits.  Eventually, it got to the point where various regions began to declare independence, with the federal government being powerless to stop them.  A rump United States still exists, and some regions still claim to recognize its authority.  However, these regions are mostly self-governing and are independent in all but name.  

That brings us to Ecotopia.  It was one of the first nations to declare independence.  It comprises Northern California, Oregon, Washington state, British Columbia and the Alaskan panhandle.  As its name would suggest, it was founded to be a more sustainable and environmentally minded society.  Almost all of Ecotopia's energy is produced by sustainable and renewable resources; such as solar, wind, geothermal and hydro-electric.  It's capital city, also named Ecotopia, was built to serve as an example of the sustainable cities of tomorrow.  

Ecotopians eat a largely pescatarian diet, with meat being reserved as more of a luxury and treat.  Insects are also a staple of the Ecotopian cuisine.  Hunting is allowed, though tightly regulated, and cattle drives have made something of a comeback.  Most buildings have rooftop gardens and poultry roosts built into them.  Those that don't usually have solar panels or wind turbines instead.  Most cities have plenty of parks and other green spaces.  The prevailing architectural philosophy is to work with nature, not against it.  Most Ecotopians drive electric cars, though most cities have plenty of public transportation options.  Cities are also built with walkability and biking in mind.

Secularism is rather prevalent, but Buddhism remains the most practiced religion.  However, Ecotopian Buddhism tends to place more emphasis on environmentalism than it does on breaking free from the cycle of reincarnation.  There's also a rapidly growing neopagan movement underway.  In fact, all religions are legal in Ecotopia...within reason, that is. For example, Christianity is legal, but the Bible has been banned due to promoting violence and bigotry.  Recently, the Koran has also been put on the list of banned books.  

Ecotopia has a thriving art scene, but all works of art and literature must be submitted to government boards for approval.  After all, wouldn't want any "problematic" themes infiltrating the artistic world and corrupting the youths.  Hate speech is considered a serious crime, and there are harsh penalties for any caught perpetuating bigoted opinions.  There have been grumbling about the definitions of hate speech getting broader and broader.  Though, officially, the Ecotopian government maintains that it supports free speech...within certain boundaries.  

It's not all fun and games, however.  Ecotopia has a large standing army, and they're certainly not afraid to use it.  In their early days, they got into quite a few skirmished with the Mormon Republic of Deseret.  These days, both nations have something of an uneasy truce with each other.  Ecotopia's biggest foreign intervention, however, hardly required any military action.  The Republic of SoCal gets most of its water from North California.  Therefore, whenever SoCal gives them trouble, Ecotopia just has to turn off the tap until they come around.  SoCal, much to its chagrin, is also quite dependent on Ecotopia to supplement its food supply.  This has, effectively, turned SoCal into an Ecotopian colony. 

The SoCalians are splits about what to do.  Some favor formally joining Ecotopia, while others suggest going to war over the former Northern California.  Still others suggest slowly working to find solutions, such as desalinization plants, that would reduce their need for Ecotopia.  In more friendly relations, the Republic of Hawaii is quite close diplomatically with Ecotopia.  The two nations share similar philosophies, and there is talk of a possible merger of the two nations.  Admittedly, many are skeptical that it will get off the ground, but hope springs eternal. 

Despite these problems, Ecotopia is looking towards a brighter future.  Despite their isolationist beginnings, in more recent times Ecotopia has begun to open itself to the wider world.  Trade relations have been established with several nations of East Asia.  Ecotopia is quickly become a hub of trade, bringing to goods of Asia to the North American continent.  A sea wall project is currently underway to reclaim coastal lands lost to rising sea levels.  Ecotopia hopes to learn from the mistakes of the past to build a better tomorrow.  Let's just hope they don't become the monsters they seek to fight.  

The flag reflects Ecotopia's environmentalist philosophy.  The brown stands for earth, the blue stands for water and the green stand for plant life and sustainability.  The phoenix represents Ecotopia rising out of the ashes of the old world to build a better tomorrow.  

Link to the original flag on my blog: https://drakoniandgriffalco.blogspot.com/2017/10/flag-of-ecotopia.html?m=1

[winterskywrites]

The final chapter, featuring Dick and Jason (again)!

[overly-obsessed-fangirl1]

In the future, anthropologists will look at our society and teach about how people worshipped the goddess Tālorswift, she who came down to Earth from Lasanjelus, Land of the Angels, during the festival of Eras to take mortal lovers in what was known as “swifting.” Her acolytes were known as Swifties, and they sung the praises of Miss Americana, queen of the gods, beloved by all. She outsmarted and defeated the Bigmysheen, a monster that would devour music, and released the lost music back into the world by creating the Tālersveržen.