CP2020: 2095 Gazetteer – California Beyond Southowilson
Northern California – NorCal is a technologically advanced nation composed of the northern half of California (north of the Morro-Visalia border) and the northwestern part of Nevada (Reno area). Its economy is built on agriculture, manufacturing, and trade, focused primarily on the huge port city of Southowilson. NorCal’s official capital is Redding; other major population centers include Reno, Fresno, and Yuba City. Southowilson is NorCal’s largest city by far and home to nearly all of its factories.
• San Francisco Bay Area – The northern and southern ends of the SF Bay area were destroyed by nuclear attacks in 2020. The city was abandoned by NERCC in 2021, and left to its own devices until the 2050’s. In that interval, the city fell to ruins. The Golden Gate Bridge, parts of which had collapsed over the years, was specifically demolished in the 2050’s as a navigation threat. In the 2080’s a reclamation effort was attempted in the Downtown area, but was abandoned due to cost issues. Small communities dot the coastline, but for the most part the entire peninsula is abandoned. Access is officially restricted from the seaward side, but it is not difficult to avoid patrols – many smugglers, pirates, and other gangs prowl the ruins of downtown, attacking shipping in the narrow straits. Further down the peninsula, an urban wilderness has developed, home to numerous non-native species. Safaris and hunts are an occasional pastime for the decadent in Southowilson.
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Southern California – SoCali includes the southern half of California from a line drawn between Morro Bay to through Visalia, all of Baja California, and annexed parts of southern Nevada (Las Vegas area). The capital is San/Ti, and the bulk of the population there, the LA satellite communities, or Bakersfield. The economy is based on a three-part structure of offshore resources, agriculture in the lower San Joaquin Valley, and light industry around San/Ti. SoCal is technically a republic, though the Army tends to maintain a firm grasp on politics. The primary language is Spanish, and the primary religion is Reformed Sur Catholicism. Despite the slumping economy, SoCal is strong and relatively stable, save for instances of terrorism and banditry in the outback.
• Los Angeles – LA was also attacked with nuclear weapons in 2020, and was also the scene of fierce fighting between the USA and Mexico. By 2025, it had collapsed completely into anarchy and warlordism. Because the city was so spread out, it was never emptied as thoroughly as San Francisco was. The city of Los Angeles itself remains a lawless, marauder-infested wasteland, devastated and flooded as a result of the 2076 Quake but still populated – it is sealed off and patrolled at most access points. Despite this, neighboring Orange County, San Bernadino, and the Inland Empire have regained populations enough for small cities to grow. These cities are mainly farming towns, isolated from each other by miles of irrigated cropland, and under constant threat of attack by terrorists who lurk in the ruins of LA.
• San/Ti Sprawl – The true heart of SoCal is found in the sprawl that has grown from the union of San Diego and Tijuana. Captured by Mexico and never subjected to attack, San Diego remained a viable city through the entire postwar period. It is currently home to millions of SoCali citizens, but the city’s growth is limited by the surrounding deserts and mountains.
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Sovereign Deseret - This Mormon theocracy formed when Utah seceded and then annexed the nearby desert states. It has aggressively cultivated the desert, and is now an exporter of food. It now dominates most of the western desert, including Utah, much of Nevada, and Wyoming and Colorado west of the Front Range. Sovereign Deseret is a primary destination for much of what is shipped through Southowilson, as well as a huge market for smugglers. The many regulations and religious proscriptions on Deseret citizens don’t stop their appetites for the usual goods and services.
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Aztlan - Aztlan is a strange nation, a mix of drug cartels, Mexican Army defectors, Aztec millennial cultists, radical intellectuals from Los Angeles, and poor Indian peasants from northern Mexico. Aztlan identifies itself as a truly Mestizo nation, and uses extensive Aztec themes in its nationalist imagery – Nahuatl is the official language, and the religion is a syncretic mix of Catholicism and a state-sanctified Aztec cult. It is made up of the northern states of former Mexico, and the southern portions of Arizona and New Mexico. Aztlan is poor, politically unstable, and relatively dangerous for outsiders. The ruling junta has pretensions of regional greatness, and believes that if they can gain control of California, then Aztlan will be complete. The capital is Culiacan, in Sinaloa. As in previous times, Aztlan is a primary source for coca and Marijuana-based drugs, often smuggled through SoCal to Southowilson, for shipment elsewhere.