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century, the United States seemed poised to police the world for decades to come. However, the bursting of the housing bubble and its associated economic depression in the early twenty-first century forced the US to recall its military assets to deal with widespread civil unrest. This is caused by a combination of Peak Oil, the staggering debt crisis and the total lack of preparation to deal with either one. Fed up with two party system, a Twitter revolution among the angry voting public finally succeed in electing enough third party candidates to Congress and eventually the White House to wrest control of the nation from the now bankrupt oil and financial industries. The American economy recovers when laws are passed that nullify private debt and nationalize the Federal Reserve Bank America does not get into the initial space race to Luna and Mars, but the beleaguered nation does regain a fraction of its former economic clout by perfecting replacement organ production and other therapies which effectively double a person's lifespan. Because protein synthesis can be accomplished so much better in free-fall, America invests heavily in Near Earth Orbit infrastructure and seeks to secure this new market with the construction of history's largest mega structure: The Jacob's Ladder Space Elevator.

It is the private space industry that eventually leads the United States beyond Earth Orbit. In the late twenty-first century, billionaire investor and space advocate Walter Hopkins founds a corporation whose sole purpose is to open space travel and settlement to the middle class. Hopkins' company, the Destiny Foundation, sells mining robots to average citizens who then have the option of using

their share of the profits from Asteroid mining to fund their families' training and outfitting for space colonization. While few people choose to leave the comfortable life that their new-found wealth has afforded them, those that do number in the thousands. The two main asteroid cyclers, Aldrin and Odysseus, are established and begin their regular routes to Mars. This causes not only a boom in the fledgling Martian economy, but gives America a presence in space that it has lacked up to that point.

While it seemed that the Asteroid Mining programs of the Destiny Foundation had finally put the US back on top, the golden age of off-world wealth was not to last. The Mining bubble eventually burst, which led to yet another economic crisis just as Jacob's Ladder was nearing completion. Once Brazil invaded Ecuador and the US declared war, the economy's woes were covered in high fever of defense spending. As was usually the case, ethnic profiling and rumors of terrorism led to an aggressive campaign against America's Latino population. Unlike other unfortunate periods in US history, the target race was in the majority, and America faced civil war as well as the global conflict.

This tension between Latinos and the rest of the US population led, at war's end to a schism along political and cultural lines. Many Hispanics relocated West or back South into the South American Union. The American West coast eventually joined politically with the Canadian government, which had relocated to Vancouver after the bombing of Greenland, and became the modern nation of Pacifica. The East coast, still firmly in the grips of American politics,

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became the United American and Canadian States.UACS is now only a shadow of its predecessors

former power and glory, but many believe it is a sinister shadow. The nation is home to one of the only remaining multi-national corporations on Terra, The Trinity Group. This economic powerhouse has enormous influence in UACS politics and their presence is felt in every aspect of life among American citizens. Capitalism is again king; those who lack the wealth to protect themselves are subject to debt indentures, deportation or worse: Transition.

In contrast, life in Pacifica is far more pleasant. Though the country is poor by modern standards, socialized health-care and responsible use of resources have made life for Pacificans easier, if not remarkable. Due to the ever-present threat of annexation by Brazil, Pacifica is engaged in a political partnership with UACS. Despite this, the Pacifian government is firm on keeping the two nations

separate economically.

The Southern Territories

By the mid-twenty-first century, Australia, the world's smallest continent, had its days numbered. The simple fact was that Australia's carrying capacity is roughly ten million people, while its population was well over twice that. This caused severe environmental impacts as severe drought permanently damaged the fragile ecosystem of the Murray-Darling River Basin. If this weren't bad enough, the effects of Peak Oil, which made industrial agriculture impossible, led to mass migration from the Land Down Under in the early twenty-second century. Enough refugees were leaving Australia's shores for New Zealand that conflictss between the two nations began in the 2140s. These conflicts were eventually enveloped by the globe spanning Great War.

Ironically, The nuclear Attacks of the Great War caused enough of a climate shift that Australia was more inhabitable in the 2180s than it will was a

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century earlier. Being almost empty by this point, the continent became settled by disillusioned and dispossessed veterans of dozens of Terran polities.

Further south, Antarctica was undergoing a climatic shift as well. The nuclear strike on the Ross Ice Shelf not only flooded the coastal regions of continent, they burned off several meters of the upper glaciated surface of Antarctica as well. This made the polar region not only marginally easier to colonize, it made reaching the entombed landmasses under the ice easier to reach as well. Biological samples that hadn't seen the light of day in millions of years were now able to be extracted.

Like Australia, the settlers in Antarctica are a collection of refugees and dissidents that have fled the other polities on Terra in search of independence.

Both continents allied with the Martian Consensus during the peace talks after the War. What started as an alliance of convenience and evolved into a genuine cooperative.

At present, the Southern Territories are

officially considered part of the Martian government. Their main concern is the Chinese Alliance to the North, which constantly threatens to absorb the Territories in their bid to become a mega-state. The deserts of the Territories' Australian Outback is home to the largest enclave of Native Martians on Terra The Martians are experimenting with terraforming the charred Earth's surface using their bio-synergistic techniques. Antarctica is home to a booming business in DNA harvesting of extinct plants and animals under the now much thinner ice sheets. These "new" DNA strains are revolutionizing bio-diversity trading throughout the Inner System. MARS

The Consensus

The majority of the Red Planet is under the benign tyranny of the Martian Consensus. Depending on who is asked, the Consensus is either a utopian government made up of AI and humans living in harmony, or an oppressive regime that keeps its citizens under constant scrutiny.

The Consensus is exactly that; the entire government of Mars is run by consensus. This means that no laws are passed unless every independently intelligent being on Mars agrees to it. There are no politicians or legislators as any citizen may propose policies or laws, and these proposals do not pass until they meet the approval of all citizens.

Needless to say, there are few laws on Mars. Those few that do exist are incredibly long and full of exceptions, addenda, clauses and other complex

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knots of verbiage. AI can, thanks to their perfect memories, keep track of all of these laws and their labyrinthine wording with little trouble. Humans, however, are hopelessly lost and use special advocate programs in their Augmented Reality systems that advise them when a course of action is illegal. The program cannot report infractions to the authorities, as that is considered, ironically enough, as an infringement of citizens' liberties.

Free Russia

The Martian Consensus is not the only government on the Red Planet. Deep in the high deserts around Olympus Mons is a haven for the forgotten sentients of the Great War – the NuApes that have freed themselves and seek without slavery.

Most of Free Russia is little more than a collection of “tuna-can” habitats established in a large lava tube to protect the inhabitants from radiation. In spite of this ramshackle appearance, some of the most advance cybernetic and genetic engineering is done in the settlement. The resident NuApes - mostly Nuangutans with a sprinkling of free Nurillas as well – make it a priority to explore every available option and therapy to correct the side effects of their cyborging process. What's more, they are after the same grail that humanity drinks from: A way to extend their lifespans beyond the thirty or so years alloted to them.

All of this advanced medicine comes at a cost, which the NuApes fulfill primarily by selling their services as expert mercenaries and pilots. Given the increasing cases of proxy-warfare and espionage on

and around Terra, the Free Russians have more than enough business to keep their settlement afloat and their ambitions funded.

ORGINIZATIONS

Not all of The Black Desert's power groups are political. Like many other times in history, some of the most powerful influences on people and society are multi-national peace keepers whose only concern is the public welfare, while others are business, corporations, and other organizations that answer to no authority higher than profit.

AsTrA

In a Solar System full of interplanetary cruisers, ultra-powerful lasers, and dozens of independent colonies, it was recognized early on after the Great War that some sort of regulatory body would be needed to keep the peace, provide for safe passage, and most importantly, keep the Terra-watt level Navigation Lasers from being used as

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weapons. What emerged from these necessities was the Aerospace Transport Authority.

AsTrA is still in its infancy; chronically underfunded, the multi-national organization much more impressive in theory than in reality. Tasked with regulating interplanetary transit, AsTrA ostensibly has direct control of all Navigation Lasers in Terran and Martian orbit. In practice, however, AsTrA must rely on assistance from the polities that use the Lasers for transport. In order to prevent political or economic factors from overly influencing freedom of travel, delegations from all polities and organizations are assigned to each transport node so

that they can police one another. Tensions run high in the outposts that house the Nav-Lasers, and many feel that unless AsTrA is given more funds, it is only a matter of time before personal conflicts in space spill over into conflicts among nations.

CommstAR

CommstAR is the largest and most reliable provider of networked Augmented Reality and information systems on Terra. Another child of post-war necessity, CommstAR stepped into the vacuum created by the enormous loss of infrastructure caused by the rising sea-level after the nuclear attacks.

What made CommstAR so popular was its cost; for basic service, the AR system is free. While people must contend with advertisements and the like, the hardware (contacts and earplugs for the bargain basement services) is available as open-source fabrication templates and therefore widely available to any and all who need to stay in contact with the ARsphere.

In addition to its free services, citizens of Terra may purchase ad-free service, expanded information options, added security features, and implanted hardware. For the premium customers, CommstAR even offers Telepresence services for anthroid control

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