I-20

The year in which I-20 starts is 2028, and while the inner American borders have reopened, the state of the rest of the world is almost completely unknown. No contact seems to be coming from it, with it's broadcasts simply being whatever was set to continuously broadcast over the last two decades, including shows, music, and emergency messages. Starting in Mississippi, however quickly heading into Arkansas as the first viewpoint character leaves his home in search for his long lost brother; The Search for Ripton starts this anthology of stories off and introduces what kind of world the _ Cosm is in it's best moments.

A handful of the focused characters are; Tyler, _, Victor, and Nate.

History

Summary

Civil Unrest & War of Catastrophen

The counter-cultural movements that began in the 1960s never truly died down, but instead seemed to have gotten worse and worse, be it the peace-loving hippies who glorified the sins of lust and sloth, the honored soldiers of war who seemed to embody wrath and gluttony, the politicians who personified envy and pride, or the corporations who were quickly taking hold of the world with their greed, the American Dream rapidly declined in the eyes of it's residence. Over the next twenty years, things seemed to only get worse and worse, particularly within the cities where sin ran amuck, however governments and urban populations ignored, or attempted to fight fire with fire and only exaggerated the flames and the news slowly moved from positive information to speaking of nothing but the evils of the world, while still showing a smile. TV and radio slowly corrupting the minds of the youth, causing them to commit atrocities at earlier and earlier ages.

By the mid 1990s, riots had began taking control over the various major cities, including New York and Los Angeles, and groups had begun to build major bodies as gang mentality had been on a steady rise, from the African-American gangs of the Bloods & Crips, to the Punk Rockers who fought against 'the establishment'. Biker gangs patrolled the American highways as the North quickly fell apart. Drug usage sky-rocketed, almost completely breaking the south of it's grasp of reality as the rest of the world quickly cascaded, and by the mid 2000s, the world had entered a second great depression, suicide rates were higher than ever, entire economies were constantly flying up and down.

Through out most of the 2010s, the governments were still trying to keep peace, however seemed to only fan the flames with each new step, as America was torn apart on all sides, politics, economics, family, friends. China had already snapped, with the Hong Kong riots leading to it's country's dismantling, breaking into several states before going into all out wars with India which was ramping up to the third world war as several other countries seemed got involved as well, America, however, attempted to stay neutral.

Finally, 70 years since the American counter-cultures began, in 2021, the riots turned into civil war as the people broke against the government, with madness and insanity seemingly driving the majority, with many not understanding their actions after the fact, it was during these next six years the the world would almost completely shatter and crumble. Only five nations would manage to contain their people, as the rest were either toppled or so out of control they became anarchy zones.

Iceland, Greenland, Russia, North Korea, and the United States managed to hold onto a central government, with both America and Russia entering a state of extreme martial law. North Korea had lead to the extermination of Japan during this time, having fired two nukes at them that lead to the Euroasian War, which had almost entirely left Europe and Asia in ruins, with the coasts of Africa being where many of the civilians and injured were sent, only to be taken by the African governments and gangs that tyrannically ruled over the continent, forced into various vile acts as the state of Africa and it's populous seemed to become much worse over these past handful of generations.

Iceland and Greenland kept to themselves, with Northern Greenland unfortunately being the site of the 'Canadian Hunt', an event that is still occurring where many officials of the Canadian government ran to Iceland to get away from the now defunct land they once manipulated, only to be followed there and slaughtered. It is said that they hold a single Stronghold in the center of Greenland, however nothing is ever heard from them and is thought to be a myth. Iceland on the other hand has shut off all communication from the world and has built walls around their island.

The War of Catastrophe is considered to have actually began in the 1930s, with all of the Civil Unrest wrote above being considered apart of it. After nearly six years of war with itself and the outside world, the American government finally decided to give it's people some of their freedoms back, including reopening some of the various state borders to allow for them to pass between states. It is called the War of Catastrophe, some have also taken to calling it the end of times, or even God's Revolution. Inexpiable things had began happening all over the world in the early 1990s, or at least that's what people say, some believe these events have been happening for millennia, however it wasn't until the internet that people began to realize they were so commonplace.

Events

Bloody Summer of '96

With the rise of gang crimes over the past three years, the beginning of the summer hosts fifteen riots scattered across the U.S., however only a few weeks in, the American Mafia takes things in their own hands and over the course of the summer leads a war against the various groups responsible for it, a few streets in New Jersey literally painted red with the amount of blood that was shed.

2nd Mexican Gulf War

The 2nd Mexican Gulf War is a war that occurred when various Mexican factions began attacking Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida coasts. This lasted from 2017-2021.

The Alaskan Incident

The Alaskan Incident is an event that happened in 2018 which caused Alaska to break away from America as Canada citizens began openly attacking Alaskan towns with no repercussion from the U.S. to it's cousin nation. This lead to the Alaskan state to fire back at Canada, for which the U.S. condemned them for, leading to Alaska to break away. It was because of the Federal Government's response to this event that the New Laws of '23 happened.

New Laws of '23

The Laws of '23 was a major event for the U.S. as it revealed the U.S. had officially entered a civil war when the New Western States of America seceded from the country, causing the Confederate States of America to also break away from it's government just a few months later.

Hawaiian Incident

The Hawaiian Incident was a major natural disaster in 2024, where the island state of Hawaii was almost completely destroyed by one of the largest hurricanes in history, followed by a tsunami, flooding the island and killing a majority of it's population.

Confederate States War

In 2025, the Confederate States of America broke into two, the Western and the Eastern sides.

Wars in the Midwest

With many of the Midwest states being torn between the three/four factions, at the beginning of 2026, multiple states, including Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska signed an agreement to break from the warring America into the Nomocracy Republic of the Midwest, which only fueled the flames of war as they've become an outlaw anarchy state with mob rule.

New Hampshire Nuking

The New Hampshire Nuking of '27 is the largest tragedy in American history, while America was able to shoot down most of the Nukes that had been shot at them, one went under their radar until it was too late as it slammed into Southern New Hampshire, hitting it's Nuclear power plant causing a chain reaction that lead to almost the complete destruction of the North-Eastern United States as multiple power plants along New York, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, and Vermont, with them all now being considered dead zones. The president of the Federal States of America said that this nuke was shot by Russia just before their collapse.

National Recoverege

After the New Hampshire Nuking, several leaders from the five new nations came together with corporate bodies and agreed to a singular national militaristic government which would solely take care of the borders of the Nations, seeing that peace along them would stay. This new multi-national mulitary is the Central National Connection and is composed of members from all five areas. This is considered the last ditch effort to restore the American empire.

God Fall

At 3:45 a.m. on August 8th 2048, the event known as God Fall began, and is considered to have ended at 7:06 p.m. on June 1st, 2056. These eight years of absolute hell felt like an eternity and completely changed the entire world forever, with gods and demons now freely walking the earth, extra-dimensional beings and aliens alike scattered across the lands.

Five Nations

Contained

Iceland

Iceland is by far the best off in the world, having closed their ports and heavily restricted their traffic in the mid 2010s as the world very quickly broke into complete chaos.

Greenland

Greenland is considered to be the second best off, with it's southern coasts holding their main populous. It's believed that it holds a secret fort which houses Canadian officials who fled there after the start of the 'Canadian Hunt'.

North Korea

North Korea is believed to have somehow survived the Euroasian War, which it is considered to have been one of the starting sparks of. Although less is heard about and from it than before the E.A.W.

United States

While initially dragged into various wars and conflicts, it was when the U.S.'s borders began to be threatened by their neighbors that America became serious, locking their country down into a state of martial law causing the already out of control riots to explode, leading to America to pull out of other people's wars to fight their own, just as they did, nukes began flying, however all that had targeted America seemed to have been shot down before they landed on soil, with the exception of one, which managed to completely destroy Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts and a bit of New York, which cooled the riots and in-fighting for a brief time, giving the citizens a common enemy in Russia.

Russia

Aside from N.Korea, Russia is the only other nation rumored to still be in good shape, although that may be pushing it as it entered a state of Martial Law, finding little fight from it's citizens, it's borders has had a hell of a time, with Saint Petersburg falling and Moscow having been completely destroyed by two of the various nukes that flew, although it is said that the countries' president, Vladimir Putin survived and continues to run one of it's various split governments.

Factions

East America

E.C.S.A.

--States: Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

F.S.A.

--States: Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine.

Mid America

C.N.C.

The Central National Connection/Collection is a corporate government.

N.R.M.

The Nomocracy Republic of the Midwest; Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, and Missouri.

W.C.S.A.

Western Confederate States of America; Texas Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma

West America

G.A.S.

The Great Alaskan States; after Alaska broke away, it separated into three different states, with the G.A.S. it's central government.

N.W.S.A.

The New Western States of America; Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, California, and Montana.

Mexico

C.D.S.

The Cártel de Sinaloa has gripped tightly around most of Mexico.

Caribbean Mobs

The Caribbean Mobs consists of gangs, including pirates, that operation on all of the South American countries, particularly those in the Caribbean Sea.

F.S.M.

The Federal States of Mexico is the federal government of Mexico.

M.P.R.

The Mexican People's Revolt are the various rebels that're fighting for their lives in Mexico.