User:Imaginos/hellisreal
Foreword
Hello everyone! This is Imaginos, and thank you for taking the time to read the most important bit of human history in our setting! However, before you continue and read further into the document, I would like to use this opportunity to discuss some Out-Of-Character information regarding the nature of the event.
Particularly, the average Solarian will not be aware of what I am going into excruciating detail over. They will not know what a Union of West Africa is. They will especially not know what a United States of America is. This is material to give the necessary context to understand why the Most Serene Solar and Intersolar Confederation is the way it is.
Other than that, do use this material to understand SolGov/SolCon better, and be able to create your personal character with a little more flair than just merely being someone from space Switzerland. Earth is big! There's lots of people around even after the worst disaster humanity has ever been through! Just don't be boring with what you write.
Introduction
“[...] We must either love each other, or we must die.”
— Senator Wilhelm Heidrich on the inaugural speech of the Most Serene Terran Confederation.
The Night of Fire is the infamous apocalyptic event that brought an end to modern Terran history, known to Solarians as the Ante-Contemporary Era. Little is known of the event itself, having occurred long before the formation of the Most Serene Solar and Intersolar Confederation, be it the motivations of the participants of the atrocity, the unfortunate buildup to the occurrence, or what transpired in the midst. Only one thing is truly acknowledged about the event, however:
What has transpired during that fateful evening, the curtain call of modern civilization, should never be repeated again.
Prior To The Night of Fire
Not much is known to Solarians of what modern society was prior to the incident, however much of its history would not be too dissimilar to what we are currently experiencing in real life. Major nations that we are accustomed to seeing on the map, as well as the news, would have existed in their current incarnation.
The buildup to the incident is entirely unknown however. Solarian archaeologists and historians struggle to find evidence of any particular motivation that would point to superpowers unleashing their dreaded nuclear arsenal upon the unsuspecting populace.
The Night of Fire
In the end, whatever may have been the initial motivation leading to the incident was, humanity would experience its worst disaster yet. In the first hours of the event, the entire nuclear arsenal humanity has built up since 1945 A.D would be unleashed, condemning Earth, its people, its wildlife and its flora to nuclear hellfire.
Major population centers worldwide would be extinguished immediately by thermonuclear warheads, rendering most cities inhospitable, or craters at their worst. The nations participating in the nuclear exchange would have collapsed near-immediately during the start, once the first missiles made it to their destinations. Immediate survivors of the onslaught would've thought that fate to be kinder to what they would soon have to face.
It would have been quite easy to understand that thought, as the few nations spared of the exchange would soon face an ecological, societal and political crisis of unimaginable proportions.
The Aftermath
Once the initial stages of the Night of Fire fully concluded, and the dust seemingly settled for a fleeting moment, those who left the bunkers would be treated to a deafening quiet. The soft crackle of a few burning buildings, the sickening, ashy smell in the air, and a dark sky blotting the warm embrace of the sun.
Every modern nuclear superpower, including nations such as the United States of America, the Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China would entirely cease to exist. This is not an exhaustive list.
As a result from the nuclear war, the long-theorized phenomena of Nuclear Winter would come to pass, cooling the world by a drastic -10C, killing a large variety of crops and making traditional agriculture on the previous industrial scale entirely unviable for the foreseeable future. Mass famine would come to pass, thinning the surviving global population's numbers to a mere few million.
It would take many, **many** years before new nations would form, but some would emerge to form future cantons:
República Federativa Da Nova Sudamérica
After the bombs fell, Brazil had to undergo one of its worst crises, having to manage a panicking population of millions once the news arrived that the nuclear apocalypse had finally come knocking. Unlike other nations however, they wouldn't have to face nearly as horrible a famine compared to their neighbors. Having historically been one of the main global exporters of agricultural products, it wouldn't be long before the nation pivoted to providing food for its general populace. This however painted quite a target on their back, as their despairing neighbors quickly dove on the opportunity to scrounge up the scraps Brazil had remaining. Fortunately for the nation, its populace had been galvanized to defend what they believed to be the last bastion of civilization with reckless abandon. It was as one of their anthems said, to either live for their free homeland, or to die for Brazil.
Once they managed to defeat their rivals, and restore order to their borders, the Federative Republic of Neo South America would begin forming, with nations such as Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay joining the burgeoning federative republic. On a shocking twist of fate however, perhaps out of personal self-reflection, they would not treat their recently-adjoined neighbors indignantly, allowing them to preserve their language, culture and identity. It wouldn't be long before the mutual cooperation of the nations of the Rio de la Plata would entice the Andean nations to join.
People's Democratic Republic of the Maghreb
Africa, unlike its northern continental neighbor, was only mildly scathed by the nuclear reaper's scythe. Major population centers near the Arabian Peninsula, such as Cairo and Alexandria would unfortunately meet their hand by nuclear bombardment, and it wouldn't be long before the Maghreb would look at each other in pure terror. Countries such as Libya and Morocco already had enough on their plate prior to the outbreak of the Night of Fire, and the event just further cemented the coming resource war that would plague the region. For the next decade, the Maghrebi nations would begin a long conflict of trying to conquer each other.
It wouldn't be long however, before the clime started becoming favorable for agriculture once more, and the tune of the nations began to change. It began with the pleas of a Tunisian man, whose speech appealing to the humanity of neighboring nations to cease fighting started began being spread among militias across the region. This allowed for diplomatic missions to return, as a slow but steady attempt at cooperation began. His words rang between the Maghreb, "[...] For the People first, the Nation second!".
It was those words that would eventually birth the People's Democratic Republic of the Maghreb, a union of the previously disenfranchised North African nations of the Arab world, a democracy focused for the People first.
Union of West Africa
It wouldn't be long before other nations in Africa would learn of the success of the Maghreb. First of course being those composing the area firmly accepted as the West African region. It isn't like they have fared any better prior to that success story. They already had to deal with the instability of military juntas and insurgents, with the Night of Fire exacerbating it to a scale previously unknown to them. Many in the continent and the region perished. But Senegal, with a semblance of stability still remaining, deciding to open diplomatic missions to the other states. Most refused cooperation, and some even retaliated against them, but with the aid of the Maghreb, they slowly made the push to unify West Africa. It would take a decade before order would be somewhat restored to the new nation.
Unlike the other success stories however, it was a precarious union. There were still too many cultural differences between the nations, and the ever-present issue of food and agriculture made unrest a relatively common sight in many of the regions the nation controlled. Democracy was restored, but the road to peace was one that would still take decades to arrive to the destination of.
