It was just like they always said it would be, on the AM talk shows, the technothriller dramas, the niche tactical games. Beat by beat, a divided nation, a contested election, an executive who kept pushing for more. Outside the bounds of decency, the nation swam and soon it was surrounded by sharks ready to eat it alive. A cool January day. A mass of humanity. A raised hand. A bible. A bomb.

Panic.

Chaos.

The capital went dark. Men scrambled and soon those horrible words were spoken.

Second American Civil War.

But well, everything after that didn’t quite go as all the armchair strategists and war nerds thought. Because you see, countries are complicated things, and when they break, they never break easy. They never break clean.

And hoo boy, did everything go to shit.

The early days of the war were an interesting affair, one could hardly call them a war. Many people kept going to their jobs, but the confusion cut off much inter-state and even intrastate movement. Many people stayed home waiting for calls that never came, or mulled around in break rooms for work that simply never materialized. Within a few weeks stores started becoming sparse, reserves were broken into, people organized. People started checking in on their neighbors, a more naïve sort might have seen this as the flowering of basic humanity, even mutual aid. For a moment it might have been, but it would soon turn into something much darker.

The first militias organized around local churches and universities, even local radio stations began to organize people. The first major raids happened a month after DC was decapitated. Technicals and even national guard vehicles punched into neighboring towns and the markets of Middle America became shooting grounds for countless unfortunates. The highways of America became dominated by armed caravans moving to seize power stations, dams, costcos, wal-mart megastores, anything the people needed.

Two months into the calamity the first broadcasts were picked up from Chicago representing the National Unity Congress, composed ostensibly of the Designated Survivor and other federal officials that were outside of Washington at the time. Then came Boston with a declaration by New England Governors and the Chief of Naval Operations that the “legitimate” American government had established itself out of Boston and Norfolk. Soon a message from the Governor of California and a board of the nation’s corporate heads blared out of Sacramento, claiming the transfer of political and economic authority to the West.

Texas made its own declaration, stating the “necessity” of a “temporary” independent republic until the legitimate USA could reestablish itself. The Texan declaration made real a niggling suspicion that haunted everyone that heard these “federal” broadcasts. That their reach was ephemeral, their authority a phantom, and what were people to do in the meantime while three so-called federal remnants bickered and failed to deliver. Starve to death?

No.

Following the Texan declaration, the first earnest attempts to not merely survive, but to reject the authority of the United States were made. The first to do so were the various collection of alt-right and fascist groups. In disparate locations across the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and New York, Survivalist scatterings in the Northwest, and the Deep South they declared the “Day of the Rope” and began a march of mass ethnic cleansing and mayhem. In the Deep South in particular a new Confederacy was declared under the Black Cross banner, which at its height held the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and parts of Georgia.

It would not be the Federals who would come to fight against the Confederates and their fascist allies, but instead, with inspiration from Rojava, America would see the rise of a Communalist insurgency that would itself take root in the Deep South and Rust Belt. An Orthodox-Bookchinist State, the Internationalist Commune of Dixie was modeled after its allies in Rojava, the greater Democratic Federation and the Global "Three Flag Army". Based around a system of democratic cantons, and focusing on the principles of liberty, social ecology, feminism, and anarchism, Dixie proved a frighteningly effective fighting force against the Black Cross. Controlling wide swaths of former Georgia, the Yazoo and Mississippi, and Western Louisiana, Dixie and its allies have whittled away the Black Cross to a fraction of its territory at the beginning of the Civil War.

To the North, in the former rust belt, Exurbia stands as a Heterodox state in the Communalist world. Sometimes derisively called Hexurbia, the philosophical heads of this brand of Communalism tied their roots to the various Witchery movements and aesthetics in Pre-War America. Known for their syncretic new religions as much as their penchant for improvised anti-armor and explosives, Exurbia has run a lightning campaign across much of the Midwest, coming into conflict and annihilating both a nascent Nazi state in Indiana and a short-lived federal pretender in Ohio. Also known for adopting the terror tactics of their enemies against them, Exurbia has taken to hanging and immolation as ways of dealing with enemy combatants.

Ancillary to these two are various Red Army groups that have thrown their lot in with the Communalists, for the most part. Some, such as the People’s Republic of Colorado, are too far away and sandwiched between federal pretenders to effect meaningful coordination. However, in some places, such as the Acadiana Commune, with every day they get closer to connecting with Dixie and frequently run river operations with them against the Black Cross.

As the legitimacy of the United States faded, many First Nations groups sprang into action, none more enthusiastically as the reformed Great Sioux Nation. Now controlling an expanse the size of Iowa, the Sioux Nation is actually majority Amerindian, due mostly to the stresses of internal and external refugeeism causing many to abandon their land for the federal territories, the UN zones, or Canada.

The Sunflower Movement is a particular quirk of the stresses of internal refugeeism and popular discontent. During the height of the NUC government much of Kansas was federal territory and was administered largely as an area for internal refugees. However, in 2027, a popular millenarian movement emerged from the camps outside of Topeka. Prophet David Hollenshead declared the beginning of Year Zero, or the Age of Aquarius, and with it the proclamation of a new “Hanunatic Republic” to replace the United States and usher in a new age of harmony. It is believed that the root of the name was due to a misunderstanding David had for the name of the Turtle Island in the stories of the Seneca. This was just one of David’s many awkward misunderstandings of First Nations’ mythology and cosmology. Regardless, the Sunflower Movement has proved an extremely useful ally for the First Nations, and their helpful, albeit off-kilter airmen are much appreciated by the Sioux Nation in particular.

In the far north of Alaska the people of Utqiaġvik and the Greater Inupiaq mostly mind their own business. Mail doesn’t really come in from the United States any more, let alone planes or boats. The Alaskan State Government and Canada still do business though, occasionally the Chinese pop up too, mostly for touristy reasons. Nobody is quite sure if things are better or worse, but a few months back someone opened up a hibachi bar and grill, so there’s that.

Regarding the United Nations. The UNMICONUS, or United Nations Mission In Continental United States, now enters its 8th year, and the grind has shown no signs of letting up. Dealing with roughly 8 million refugees near the Canadian border (not including the 6 million in Canada alone) and a length of roughly 1,500 miles (~2400 KM) to patrol, UNMICONUS has become the largest moneysink in UN peacekeeping since the Congo or Syria. The only success, arguably, is the Special Administration in Miami, which has successfully overseen the city and its surrounding metro (and the Florida Keys) and managed a peaceful transition to local mayoral rule. Miami is still technically a part of the state of Florida, the mayor of Miami is also the technical governor of Florida. The Mayor’s secretary as of right now holds the seat for the United States in the Security Council (but cannot make any motions), and the seat for the United States proper in the general assembly remains empty. There are motions, in the future, to possibly move the United Nations back to the USA (to Miami of course) from its current place in Vienna. However, that will come with its own hurtles.

Returning to the Federals. Each one is their own special sort of America. Starting with the Chicago Government. Formed from the National Unity Congress which emerged in the latter days of the United States, Chicago claims legitimacy from both its surviving legislature and the chunks of national guard, army, and air force that aligned with it in the waning days of the republic. On paper it should be a military might to match no other, but the loss of much of the nation’s capital, the scattering of its farming classes, a dearth of resources, and a massive population to take care of have left it strapped. It is controlled mostly by devolved military councils who on paper report to the congress and acting president in Chicago, but on the day to day take care of themselves. Despite their fragility the NUC hangs on, and its unbending control of I-80, or the “Federal Freedom Highway” is a testament to its capabilities. Politically it can be described as radical-centrist, mostly because it has no coherent federal policy and so is mostly hands-off with its populace, at least those who maintained their pre-war homes and capital.

In the far west lies the Sacramento government, which has maintained an overall steady rule over its area. Built upon the “libertarian” consensus of the western states of Pre-War America the various states of the Sacramento government run without much need for oversight, and often federal policy need merely be brought up to courts for review to be adopted by the states as opposed to being imposed by a central legislature. During the “flight of the executives” in the initial days of chaos following the bombing of DC much of the corporate heads of America fled to the West Coast (followed closely by the Dominican Republic), and to places like Seattle in particular. With much of the capital of pre-war America in its hands and access to the Pacific market, Sacramento makes a killing and is the richest of all the federal states. It however has become effectively content in its current state of affairs, and despite the airs it puts on does not seek the actual restoration of the United States. If it applied all its energies to it, Sacramento could, with the other federal factions, put America back together again. This would have been a relatively “trivial affair” in the first years of the war, but as each year passes it becomes harder and more abstract, and the appeal of moneyed interests becomes more and more alluring.

Who wants to be in the same country as Texas anyways?

Finally, there is Boston. If any faction can be said to be totally dedicated to the point of madness to the revival of America it is the Bostonian faction. It is perhaps ironic then that Boston holds very little in common with the old USA. The states have been abolished in favor of French-Style departments all controlled by a central committee of department heads and military officials. A Red-Green style Social Market society, the Bostonians responded to the flight of the executives by breaking into the offices of every major company across the Northeast that had the slightest thought of leaving and making sure there were no more executives alive to flee anymore. It was a common joke that a Bostonian soldier would decide how many state industries he’d break a company into by how many bullets he had in his magazine. Boston has an immense naval presence, owning the Naval installations from Groton, to Norfolk, to Kings Bay, and much of the international fleet, even the Pacific fleet, defected to Boston in the early years. Despite the harsh and gritty attitude Boston takes, its civil society is the freest and most progressive of the Federal factions. Departments are run democratically, allowing a real civilian presence on the central committee, and in terms of social protections and welfare it is the most developed. In its attitudes towards minorities of all stripes and social expression Boston is also the most progressive, outside of the Communalists that is. This civil society has also made the average Bostonian-American sympathetic to the Communalists, which has proven a headache of a circle to square for the local government. Boston is currently fighting insurgents across the Appalachians and Greater Piedmont, including a massive network of Nazis and Black Cross sympathizers in former New York and Pennsylvania. On the other end Exurbia pushes as well, and the two may someday meet in the middle.

What then? Who knows.

There is no clear end to the war in sight. In truth much of the country is still disparate town factions, rogue churches and universities, and families moving aimlessly, just trying to scrape by. Already double the length of the First Civil War and it seems like it has merely just begun, anything can happen, and at any moment former juggernauts could fall and new titans could awake from unknown slumbers. To the rest of the world this uncertainty breeds panic, only multiplied by the tens of millions of disparate Americans now cast as far away as India and South Africa. In America survivalists and other hangers-on watch as their rations dwindle, their computer monitors struggle to light up scenes of old war games and the muttering audiobooks of long discarded fantasies.

Those were wars as imagined by children. This is war as waged by adults.

And war is not a game.