Moe Lane

Denvertown, California – Google Docs

Denvertown, California

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Officially, it’s the Owens Valley Resettlement Camp in California; in a heavy bit of irony, the camp existed prior to the Serpentfall as the Manzanar War Relocation Center. The Japanese-Americans who were interned there have long since been repatriated to their (suddenly-vital) farms and fishing boats, of course; in their place were put those who managed to get out of Denver and the Rocky Mountains in the Evacuation of ‘46, but who lacked immediately useful skills (like farming and fishing). The Warren government has had little luck in finding these refugees better living conditions.

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Billy the Barbourian and the Witch of Yazoo – Google Docs

Billy the Barbourian and the Witch of Yazoo

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Yazoo City, Mississippi

Population: 4,000

Controls: Yazoo City

Government: Strongman

Problem: Monsters

Heroic Opportunity: Trade Goods

City Aspect: Militaristic.

Yazoo City got through the Serpentfall itself well enough, but the collapse of order and civilization in Mississippi was particularly dramatic. The town only survived because of the leadership of the Barbour family, who adapted to the new conditions with remarkable speed.  Within two years, what was once a family full of lawyers and politicians had transformed itself into a sprawling clan of fighters and scouts of ever-increasing thews. Today, Judge Jeptha Barbour reigns over the Clan of Barbourians, but practical day-to-day leadership seems to be falling upon his brother Billy, who runs scouts and sorties throughout the Delta.

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It is shockingly difficult to track down online what percentage of the population of Yazoo City, Mississippi was African-American in 1940.  It shouldn’t be: the Census asked that question, I believe, and they took down the answers. Shouldn’t this be readily available public information?

Moe Lane

PS: Because I want to know what kind of neo-barbarian tribe would have taken over the town after The Day After Ragnarok‘s Serpentfall, of course.  I was originally going to have it be ruled over by an increasingly-thewed Barbour Tribe, of course — it’s like they’re just handing me the idea — but if the town was already majority-black at the time then I gotta fiddle with the idea some more.

Serpente Zucchini – Google Docs

Serpente Zucchini

(Cucurbita hydra)

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Stats: …It’s a mobile zucchini.

Portions of Italy technically survived the Serpentfall, but nowhere in close proximity to the Serpent Curtain is going to be actually pleasant.  In the Piemonte region, wise men only carefully eat the grain, and do not drink the wine at all — but they still cultivate the Serpente Zucchini. It helps keeps them alive.

As mutated abominations of nature Tainted by the Serpent go, Serpente Zucchini are remarkably benign.  While still clearly a plant-like organism, the ripe Zucchinis have developed the ability to detach themselves from their vines and seek new soil on their own; the Zucchini moves like a three to five foot long snake, and looks vaguely like one (with flowers in the place where the eyes would be).  Fortunately, it does not consume flesh, blood, brains, spinal fluid, bile, lymph, or even hair. It also does not attack or stalk living creatures, will not strangle humans in the night, does not drain humans of their life essence, increase the chances of Serpent Taint, or subtly poison the environment. It tastes indescribably awful, of course, but that’s fine. Serpente Zucchini are no longer human food sources.

What they are instead are early warning systems.  A Serpente Zucchini gets agitated when within twenty feet of a tainted monster or chimera, possibly because anything tainted by the Serpent finds Serpente Zucchinis irresistibly delicious.  It’s believed by their cultivars that the Zucchinis seek out humans precisely because they dimly understand that humans won’t eat them, which bizarrely enough makes them increasingly popular pets. They’re not exactly affectionate, but they do like human body heat, and stay where you put them.

Serpente Zucchinis last about three years in the wild; nobody knows how long they’ll live while being taken care of by humans.  They generally just need soil and water to survive, and seem to do slightly better when either is even slightly Tainted. The major problem that the Serprente Zucchini poses to humans is its fecundity: a mature Serpente Zucchini can spawn another two each calendar year, and they reach reproductive age as soon as they detach from the vine. This can making breeding them tricky.  For that matter, more than one Italian agricultural expert is adamant about not breeding them at all. You simply can’t trust things that come from the Serpent.

Garyn Steelholt [Ragnarok] – Google Docs

Garyn Steelholt

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Gary, Indiana

Population: 22,000

Controls: Gary city limits (part of the Chicago Mayorality)

Government: Strongman (satrap of Chicago)

Problem: Factions

Heroic Opportunity: Trade Goods

City Aspect: Religious

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That Refreshing Taste [Ragnarok] – Google Docs

That Refreshing Taste

[The Day After Ragnarok]

Lt. Commander John Austin (USN) has been given an assignment by the Warren administration: put a team together, go to the ruins of Atlanta, and extract the formula for Coca-Cola. Why? Well, it’s kind of complicated.

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Kansas Cities – Google Docs

Kansas Cities

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas

Population: 100,000/700,000

Controls: Western Missouri and Eastern Kansas

Government: Strongman

Problem: Unrest

Heroic Opportunity: Technology

City Aspect: Extremely tense.  

Kansas City, Kansas managed to get through the first few months better than Kansas City, Missouri: there were more people in the Missouri city, which meant more chances for cholera to rip its way through the population.  The city fathers of KC-Missouri compounded their problems by planning a raid on the granaries KC-Kansas had barely managed to keep safe during the first bad year. Their sneak attack did manage to kill most of the elected leadership of KC-Kansas, but that simply allowed one Corporal Theodore Bronson, to effectively and decisely seize power in the confusion.  The invading Missourians were first turned back, then defeated, then conquered outright in the spring and summer of 1946.

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Sirens [Ragnarok] – Google Docs

Sirens

(Pseudobranchus axanthus contranaturam)

[The Day After Ragnarok]

The southern dwarf siren was a small (4 to 10 inches) aquatic salamander that lacked back legs, and lived in the swamps of Florida.  However, since the Serpentfall evolution for the species has gone into overdrive. Each year’s new clutch of dwarf sirens eggs doubled in size; currently, newly-mature sirens range from three to six feet in length, although that’s mostly tail.  

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River-Walled Cincinnati – Google Docs

River-Walled Cincinnati

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Cincinnati, Ohio

Population: 90,000/510,000

Controls: SW Ohio, a small portion of NW Kentucky

Government: Machine

Problem: Hostile City (Dayton)

Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work

City Aspect: Ambitious and militaristic.  

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Golden Vegas – Google Docs

Golden Vegas

[The Day After Ragnarok]

City: Las Vegas, Nevada

Population: 18,000

Controls: Las Vegas (part of the USA)

Government: Despotism

Problem: Factions

Heroic Opportunity: Bounty

City Aspect: Free-wheeling

Most people think that, if it weren’t for the Serpentfall, Las Vegas would be a wide spot on the side of Route 91 instead of a rapidly growing metropolis.  Before Ragnarok it didn’t have much; desert, cactus, some casinos — but it does have Hoover Dam nearby, which means that the electricity in Las Vegas is some of the most reliable in the Western United States.  The changed climate doesn’t hurt, either: the colder, wetter weather actually helps grow more crops in the area.

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