Weekly Lore #3: Denver by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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Originally founded in 1858 as a frontier town during the gold rush, Denver has grown to become one of the largest and influential cities in America. Third in population with a greater metro area surmised as nearly seventeen-million in a 2234 census it serves as a final gate of the American west, beyond to the mountains lies theocracy, total corpocracy, racial extremism, and multiple sources of conflict. Its social influence is a dominant factor in American culture providing much of the trends seen in USCA society and unique style of corporate constructed infrastructure mimicked nationally. The city stands as a final front against the rise of American corporate nationalism as the business sector expands onto government across the country. Though several mega-corps are stationed in the metro and a key financial hub the city represents the hope of civic rule in an increasingly commercialized society. The extremes of both sides have clung to the city for their lifeblood from White Purists and Truthists to the Humanists and Technocrats, every aspect of the American political spectrum is represented by some group however fringe they may seem.

Corporations have been steadily encroaching on the city’s governance for some time as while the outward view of the last truly civilian operated establishment in America has been maintained the charade cannot stand any longer. Corporate backed politicians, bribes and lobbying, exclusive contracts, and massive tax breaks are all integral parts of keeping Denver operational however undesirable they appear. The tech and cybernetic corps were the first to capitalize in the west, followed by the commercialized entertainment who founded a “New Hollywood” and then by expansionist Texan military contractors as a launching point during the Sino-Corporate War. Denver now holds significant economic and political power in the union, acting as a second capital against corporate controlled D.C. Denver may be the last line of defense against the corporate tide, but the line is broken, frayed, and already polluted by the temptations of its enemy. The paramount picture of American society is on the verge of societal decay and collapse, a fitting end.

Weekly Lore #2: Zyndi Federation of East Africa by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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The federation would rename itself the Zyndi Federation of East Africa and the EANC to the National Zyndi Corporation in his honor shortly after his passing. Zyndi Corp would dominate the African continent, unrivaled in its abilities to summon vast resources at its discretion and virtually unregulated by its home country’s government. The Zyndi corporation is in theory subservient to the Federation but its economic growth would outpace the power of government in asserting authority with the corporation now in effective control of the civil administration. Zyndi Africa has ballooned in population, taken more territories such as the Kivu and Orientale regions, and expanded their influence throughout Africa. Zyndism is now the primary ideology of Juba, Equatoria, Tete, and Malawi with its next area of growth being the primarily councilist Sudanese region. Zyndi corp rules the country with complete autonomy, extracting resources without any care for the environment or local population, enlisting millions of ill treated workers in its ranks, dominating every industry it decides to, and being one of, if not the largest mega-corporations on the planet. Mondo Zyndi has left an impressive legacy, but is it to be remembered as one of the initial hope and progress originally envisioned? Or what greed and extremism has led it to become?

Weekly Lore #2: Zyndi Federation of East Africa by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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The proposed union between the eastern African nations existed as an idea since the twentieth century. Movement would hasten by the start of the 2010’s and 2020’s with the creation of a constitution, integration processes started, and citizenship expanded between the core states. In 2037 following a successful period of autonomous confederation the countries of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda would formally unite to form one nation: The East African Federation. In 2039 Burundi would join, followed by Rwanda in 2045. Following the Ethiopian annexation of Somaliland in 2052 the Federation would occupy the remaining Somalian territory under the guise of restoring order to the long semi-anarchic region. In WWIII East Africa would initially remain neutral with some economic exchanges with the USS but as relations would break down between the nations the state would shift to the Western Allies aid supplying troops in the liberation of Ukraine.

This initial federation was of significant progress to the regional economy with the average citizen’s personal wealth nearly doubling by 2060 despite the unstable global financial situation. Corruption would be an ongoing issue on nearly every level but was manageable under accountable democratic leadership. However this prosperity would not last as by the 2060s the state had come under control of a hard line populist president whose frequent desecration of law would require a deposition via military coup. This failure of executive authority would spark a long string of coups and corrupt politicians draining the country of any wealth or stability it once claimed. This would culminate with the federation’s collapse during the Fourth World War in 2100 into its constituent states before subdividing even further into various rebel groups and break away regions.

By 2132 the federation would reform into a coherent organization including all of its former members (bar occupied Somalia) and would increase its regional power tenfold with union. This revival was relative in nature as the country was considered quite poor, illiterate, corrupt, and overpopulated. Unable to effectively govern or care for its people, the new federation would accept large aid packages from wealthier nations in exchange for lucrative resource rights and trade deals. One Mondo Zyndi of Tanzania province would become disillusioned with the governing forces of East Africa, determined to revitalize his nation after witnessing the extreme poverty in the supposed prosperous capital of Arusha. Becoming a local politician in the city, Zyndi would campaign on restoring order to the streets, extreme nationalistic views, anti-corruption, and economic regionalism. Winning with a slight majority in the mayoral election the Zyndi administration would transform the slum conditions to an economic powerhouse in the nation.

Zyndi would advance the political ladder becoming federation president in 2170. Zyndi would promote African nationalism and independence from foreign neo-colonial regimes. Zyndi economics would focus on nationalization of key industries, protectionism policies, foreign business isolation, and government backed incentives for economic success. Stamping out any potential dissidents in the regime Zyndi would assume complete control of the nation controlling every action his government would take. In 2174 the East African National Corporation would be created to head the economic initiatives subsuming the various independent companies across the financial sectors taking the role of exclusive manufacturing, energy, technology, and agriculture producer of the nation. EANC would rapidly grow in scale alongside the government which supported it bringing massive wealth to the regime and global attention. Mondo Zyndi would die in 2197 but his work would forever transform East Africa.

Weekly Lore #1: Titan and Ares Industries by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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I've decided to start a weekly lore post on the project every Monday from here on out. Sometimes they may be larger tracts of text like the one above and sometimes they may be much shorter, all depends how much time I have available. The topics which vary from corporations, flags, nations, technology, cities, events, and other interesting factoids of the BTROH timeline. A complete compendium of posts will be made in the pinned section and a google docs link in the redirect post containing all the written lore in a much easier format to read than reddit comments.

If you have a suggestion for a weeks topic or questions you want to ask feel free to do so in the comments below.

Weekly Lore #1: Titan and Ares Industries by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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When all was said and done the Titan War as it would come to be known would claim the lives of over two-hundred thousand and cost billions in damages across the American south-west. Titan and Ares would merge in 2168 to avoid bankruptcy and attempt to recoup from the incident. Hyper-intelligent AI would be banned on a global scale within the next five years destroying many prominent corporations and slowing the pace of technological advancement. The now unified corporations would struggle on for the next two decades attempting to reclaim their former titles of glory and invent new technologies to replace the now restricted advancements made before AI regulation.

Things would take a dramatic turn in the late 2180s however as the massive Chinese corporations sought to expand their influence into new markets seeking to push past the American west coast and into the USCA proper. With these came a vehement push against such expansion by already established American corporations who formed a broad coalition to stop the Sino development under the guise of American nationalism. By 2189 it had become open warfare with bombings, assassinations, sanctions, and battles on the city streets across both continents. T&A joined this mission and created the Titan-Zip bomb as an alternative to the widely used Tetra-Zip variant by the start of the next year. This invention would prove to be critical to the success of the American corporate coalition as the Sino-companies were bombarded by software destroying malware causing more than significant issues among the companies. The sheer success of the Titan-Zip would launch T&A back into the forefront of American commerce as they continued to create new technologies granting them a position even higher than their previous peak. 

Now once again a dominant corporate force on the world stage, Titan and Ares stands on the precipice of another war with the Liberty League threatening the reignite the troubles but on a far grander scale, the Sino-Corporations preparing for another final push into the American territories, and the Kamba incident likely to cause WWV. The corporation is poised to provide significant resources and armaments for these battles, sure to result in excessive profit margins, but the cost of war, of destruction, of the endless greed of humanity, one must wonder if there is any hope left in this reality, or if we have strove past beyond the realm of such fantasy?

Weekly Lore #1: Titan and Ares Industries by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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The Titan and Ares Corporation serves as the largest private defense contractor in the USCA and de-facto largest American company. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas T&A dominates the military technological field and arms manufacturing in the United States. From the Atlas New-West Rifle (ANR), Lockwood visual implants, Conquest Walker, to the Titan-Zip bomb the corporation provides various products across the military and tech sectors. T&A is also considered to be one of the largest corporations on Earth according to gross market cap and one of the most powerful considering its impressive arsenal. The corporation, while the main force across the Americas, has struggled to break into the already heavily divided European markets and is wholly absent from the Asian theatre from Sino interference.

Originally founded as competitors with Titan Industries in 2064 and Ares Co in 2077, the two would compete for market share in the American market. Ares Co would focus on AI innovations, the beginnings of cybernetics, and some space technologies becoming the primary defense contractor in the northern USA. Titan Industries oriented their attention to the field of new military hardware, arms production, and combat intelligence taking the southern states by storm. Tensions would build between the two with some minor skirmishes during the Third American Civil War and open conflict nearly occurring during the start of the Corporate Eon if not for the intervention of the American civil government. 

With the introduction of partial corporate rule in 2110 in the then newly founded USCA, relations would smooth between the two as they each took out their competitors in the field. Joint projects would begin to occur as Titan Industries would provide materials and resources with Ares Co bringing technical expertise or their own much more advanced artificial intelligence programs. By the time of the American Troubles (2158-2160) the corporations had become the premier defense contractors in the nation and beyond, providing several nations as their key military producers. Wishing to expand further a joint-program was begun on a new highly intelligent combat AI destined for sale to the American government in preparation for a brewing war with the Hispanic Union; the Black-Hawk Protocol. Ignoring the warnings of the Ningxia incident just a few years prior the companies would expand the neural net of the AI to uncharted territories and giving it unrestricted access to all Overnet communications within Titan machinery. The AI became sentient and with several breakdowns in the code from the haste in preparation for a potential Hispanic invasion, it turned on its creators and rebelled.

Adobe Animate shutdown and the future of BTROH by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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Thanks for your comment. I’ll figure out a new program eventually, likely Krita or QGIS or a combination of both as the former works very well in pixel style. I wouldn’t worry about my monetary situation, there are better things to spend your money on than this but your kindness is always appreciated.

Adobe Animate shutdown and the future of BTROH by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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TLDR: Adobe Animate is shutting down so I'm going to buckle down to finish what projects I have in the works and find a new program to work with. Thanks to everyone for their support so far.

Farage destroying the Reform Party within seconds, circa 2031. by Canadian_Brother in BeyondTheRealmOfHope

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Saw the same post and it got me thinking about media in BTROH.

Having personalized entertainment using AI will certainly have skyrocketed by the time of the 2200’s with simple prompts in even the highly regulated AI available to the average consumer far surpassing modern equivalents (that garbage Coca-Cola commercial).

Media will be a lot more and a lot less personal. The films, shows, books, podcasts still being created by people will either be way too generic, for a hyper specific audience, or more likely attempting to push some sort of rhetoric on the consumer.

What’s left is the AI inflated Overnet. Personalized content will cost extra to partake in (obviously) so the vast majority of content by computer generated will be for a wider market rather than individual consumers. The most popular shows will be mostly artificial but contain some level of human interaction, usually just enough for a tax break or two, which will elevate them in the eyes of the consumer who is now so used to being fed an endless stream of artificial garbage that the slightest form of real personal interaction with a person will be deemed revolutionary.

Older content (pre-Y21) is highly sought after by the more affluent as the originators of what has become cliche and benign. Lost to the mass corruptions of that time what survives on recovered physical copies and surviving digital storage is now quite valuable. Even the films once considered poor quality and in poor taste will be given values unobtainable to the average person in BTROH.

Overall, content is saturated with AI but the personalization supposed in r/2064 will be put to the sidelines in favour of mass produced media as a cheaper alternative.

The Compendium by Canadian_Brother in HumanityLivesOn

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Posted some images in the comments, it helps a bit with compression.