Chapter Text

Abu Dhabi

Large swathes of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi survived the Vanishing in the several hundred islands straddling the Emirate’s coastline. For a while, the Emirate was held together by an incredibly fragile peace, however tensions soon began to mount in light of the government’s controversial rationing and aid provisioning system. Initially, only Emirati citizens were eligible to receive provisions through these programs, however kafeels were given proportionally larger allocations of provisions to distribute among the migrant workers under their sponsorship. This situation proved to be untenable, as tens of thousands of migrant workers were not covered under this distribution system, and allegations mounted against kafeels hoarding and stockpiling provisions for themselves. This corresponded with growing protests among the Emirate’s migrant workers, which swiftly increased in size and intensity as intense clashes between the protestors and the police left hundreds dead. Eventually, tensions reached a boiling point, and the protests culminated in what came to be known as the Kafala Riots. A group of migrant workers were able to overpower the garrison of one of the Emirate’s police stations, allowing them to appropriate the weapons for themselves, which were swiftly distributed among the fermenting opposition to the Emir’s authority. The throngs of protestors marched on Qasr Al Watan, the presidential palace, during which Arab-owned properties were looted, Emirati and European civilians were killed or assaulted, and those detained in the city’s prisons and detention centers were released. Tens of thousands of Emiratis fleeing the carnage made their way to a series of safe zones established by the Abu Dhabi Police Force, the Presidential Guard, and the Armed Forces on the Qasr Al Watan palace grounds, the neighboring islands surrounding Abu Dhabi proper, and the grounds of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque Center. During the ensuing clashes, many of the safe zones were overrun, and thousands were slain; however several safe zones held out long enough for the riots to dissipate. Today, much of the city is in a state of anarchy - controlled by local groups and gangs - while the remnants of the Emirati authority have begun the grueling process of expanding out from their safe zones to reclaim the city one block at a time. The vast majority of the islands along the Abu Dhabi coastline are under the control of the Emirate, however in the city itself, the Emirati-controlled safe zones account for around 20% of the territory. Neighboring Bahrain has actively clamped down on refugees fleeing the anarchy of Abu Dhabi to ensure that news of the Kafala Riots doesn’t reach its borders, so as to prevent similar movements from fermenting in its own borders.

Andaman Pirates Confederacy

Port Blair became the stronghold for a loose confederacy of pirates who prey on the surviving communities of South and Southeast Asia. These pirates originally operated out of Indonesia, particularly Northern Sumatra, but were forced to flee for safer harbors when the Indonesian government clamped down on piracy within its borders. The headquarters for this loose pirate confederacy are situated in the Andaman and Nicobar Command, which unironically once served as the main hub of India’s anti-piracy operations. Many of the warships sitting in the Andaman and Nicobar Command have been refurbished and added to the pirates’ growing fleet. While the pirates claim suzerainty over the entire island chain, their influence is limited to Port Blair and the harbors of a handful of other major towns. Andaman Creole Hindi, with a smattering of words from Malay and English, dominates the communications between the pirates of the islands. The inhabitants of North Sentinel Island are left to their own devices.

Arno Zeeb

At the time of his death, Arno Zeeb was believed to be the last self-identifying Luxembourger in the world. At the time of the Vanishing, Arno Zeeb had recently been hired as a staffer in the Embassy of Luxembourg in London. He was a member of the Luxembourg Heritage Society, formed by the several dozen staffers from the Embassies of Luxembourg in London, Dublin, and Copenhagen. The Luxembourg Heritage Society worked closely with the World Heritage Society to preserve aspects of Luxembourgish language, culture, and tradition. These efforts found little success, and it wasn’t long before Arno Zeeb was the last surviving member of this society. Just before his passing at the age of 76, exactly 50 years after the Vanishing, he requested that his body be buried on the Rocher du Bock (a rocky landmass overlooking the River Alzette). His burial site is marked by the Flag of Luxembourg.

Australia

Following the Vanishing, Tasmania effectively became the last major bastion of the Australian Government, operating out of Hobart. Due to the island’s extensive agricultural, mining, and hydroelectric infrastructure, Tasmania was relatively well-positioned to withstand the initial aftershocks of the Vanishing. In the period following the Vanishing, Tasmania maintained close ties with New Zealand, to the point where sizable portions of the local populace advocated to either be absorbed into New Zealand, or at least enter a formal federation with New Zealand. While no formal action has been taken yet, more and more voices within the Australian and New Zealander leadership have declared their support for an Australasian Union - partly in a bid to counter Indonesia’s growing influence over the region. The Australian Government has objected to Indonesia’s de facto annexation of Northern Australia, but ultimately lacks the projection to effectively intervene in the process. Nevertheless, a small fleet assembled by the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard was sent to evacuate those seeking to escape Indonesian vassalage from the surviving communities in Northern Australia. Tasmania saw rapid population growth in the first few years after the Vanishing as a result of natural population growth, the influx of refugees displaced by Indonesia’s encroachment of Northern Australia, the return of Australian expats from abroad, and the arrival of refugees from surviving island countries who lacked the means of sustaining themselves. This sudden population boom put a significant strain on Tasmania's self-sufficiency, prompting the local government - in collaboration with the government of New Zealand - to begin resettling the Australian mainland.

Azores

In the immediate wake of the Vanishing, the local government of the Azores organized an expeditionary party to survey the state of the Portuguese mainland and report back with their findings. The local government requisitioned a small cargo ship that happened to be docked in the port of Ponta Delgada at the time of the incident. A 73-person expeditionary party was rapidly assembled - comprising the ship’s crew, military personnel, health professionals, and scientists from the University of the Azores - and departed from the Azores aboard the cargo ship. Despite discouragement from the local government, dozens of civilian ships also departed from the Azores at the same time. These civilian ships carried nearly 200 more people, most of whom wished to see the Portuguese mainland to search for their loved ones, validate the reported mass disappearance of the continent for themselves, or out of pure sense of adventure. Alongside these ships were a handful of opportunists, prospective looters and thieves, who hoped to find the buildings on the Portuguese mainland abandoned and prime for looting. Nearly a week after the ships departed, around a day before the main expeditionary party was scheduled to reach the mainland, reports emerged of a rapidly-forming windstorm in the North Atlantic anticipated to make landfall on the Iberian Peninsula. Despite the best efforts of the Azorean government, all contact was lost with the expeditionary party as well as the several dozen civilian ships that had departed for mainland Portugal. The Azores soon abandoned all serious efforts to reach the Portuguese mainland, and instead shifted its resources to focus on weathering the effects of Windstorm Raul and ensuring the islands were equipped to feed themselves in the long-term. Over time, the people of the Azores begin to more strongly identify as Açorianos rather than as Portuguese. Meanwhile, while Windstorm Raul destroyed many of the ships before they could make it to the mainland, a handful of ships (including the one carrying the expeditionary party) were able to make landfall near the now-abandoned Peniche Peninsula. Led by the remnants of the expeditionary party, the survivors of the wrecked ships formed a small maroon community, which swelled in size as they were joined by the handful of tourists, surfers, and restaurant staff who survived the Vanishing on the nearby island of Baleal. This maroon community refers to themselves as the encalhados (the stranded ones) and have developed a unique identity of their own.

Bahrain

By all accounts, Bahrain was set up to fail in the wake of the Vanishing. The nation had few natural resources (aside from petroleum and natural gas), heavily relied on food imports from abroad, had little arable land within its own borders, was mired by sectarian tensions between its Sunni and Shia populace, and had even lost large swathes of land as its artificial islands and land reclamation projects sunk bank into the sea. And yet, Bahrain defied all odds and persisted through the post-Vanishing chaos as a relatively intact nation. When the Vanishing occurred, Bahraini authorities initially assumed that they were under attack by an Iranian invasion force. A state of emergency was declared, and detachments from both the Bahrain Defence Force and the U.S. Naval Support Activity Bahrain were mobilized to defend against an invasion force that never arrived. When King Salman learned of the reality of the situation, he mobilized the country with impressive speed. The national state of emergency was maintained, and austerity measures were introduced to bolster the nation’s self-sufficiency. Efforts were directed towards repairing and replacing oil/gas infrastructure lost during the Vanishing and establishing a stockpile of petroleum products. Investments were made in the nation’s desalination plants to bolster and expand their capacity. The little cultivable land in Bahrain was seized by the Bahraini government and redistributed among those with experience in farming. Aluminum was moved from the depots and production lines of the Alba smeltery to expedite the construction of settlements along the Red Sea coast. These settlements served as the basis for fishing, hunting, and farming communities intended to feed the overpopulated islands. While these settlements were largely intended to be governed by Bahrainis, residency in these settlements was primarily offered to migrant workers and expats whose jobs were deemed to be redundant in the wake of the Vanishing.

Belossinibeya

A group of settlements on the American mainland established by a community of Russian emigrants who had been living in New York City (particularly from a handful of neighborhoods in Southern Brooklyn) at the time of the Vanishing. In the years prior to the Vanishing, this community was predominantly composed of Russian emigrants who had fled to the United States in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. This community was overwhelmingly made up of anti-war activists, political exiles, and those evading partial mobilization. Due to the nascency of this community, very few of them had solid roots in New York City. As a result, in the wake of the Vanishing, this community struggled to scrape by in the absence of an established community support system - with most even struggling to make inroads with the established Russophone communities of Brighton Beach and Sheepshead Bay. When the USPG began settling the continental mainland, many members of this community seized the opportunity to seek out a fresh start. The community successfully petitioned the USPG to receive a plot of land upstream of the Potomac River, just before the Great Falls, and sufficient supplies to start their own colony (under the authority of the USPG) on the mainland. The settlements established on and near this plot of land came to be known as Belossinibeya. The name was corrupted from the Russian term for the white-blue-white flag adopted as an anti-war symbol of opposition to Putin’s government in Russia. Conversely, this same flag was adopted as the informal symbol of the territory, representing both its inhabitants’ heritage while also being repurposed as an artistic representation of the Potomac River. Belossinibeya is the home to several thousand inhabitants, mostly Russophone ethnic-Russians as well as smaller numbers of predominantly-Russophone Belarusians, Ukrainians, Chechens, and Central Asians. As a settlement on the periphery of the USPG’s control over the mainland, the inhabitants of Belossinibeya have enjoyed a great deal of autonomy, allowing them to enjoy a relatively unique way of life formed from the syncretism of Russian culture and local natural resources. However, tensions have begun to mount as the USPG eyes the lands adjacent to  Belossinibeya as the ideal location for a canal to bypass the unnavigable Potomac Rapids. This canal, the USPG argues, would render a larger section of the Potomac River navigable to river boats, facilitating the resettlement of the mainland. As the USPG deploys engineers, planners, and surveyors to the region for the prospective canal, the nearly ten-thousand inhabitants of Belossinibeya must decide whether their future lies with the USPG, or as an independent entity in its own right.

Bountiful

A Mormon colony established on what had once been Oman's southern Dhofar coast, roughly centered around the site of the former city of Salalah. The colony was settled by a sect of polygamist Mormon fundamentalists, with most of its members originating from just one congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Madagascar. Although most of Bountiful’s inhabitants are Malagasy, the settlement is largely led by non-Malagasy Americans who had been serving as missionaries in Madagascar at the time of the Vanishing. Originally, the settlement comprised just a few hundred inhabitants, however migration to Bountiful expedited with the onset of the Malagasy Civil War. Since the start of the conflict, Bountiful’s population has swelled to accept over a thousand more Mormons fleeing the ethnic clashes. The journey proved to be perilous, and many of the Malagasy Mormon refugees were lost at sea, kidnapped by pirates, or opted to settle down in the Seychelles.

British Indian Ocean Territory

Little information is known about the inhabitants of the British Indian Ocean Territory, aside from the fact that they are effectively a hermit kingdom governed by the Joint Military Commission established by American and British military personnel from the Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia. The population is believed to be effectively split between three castes - the elite class made up of former American and British personnel who rule over the islands with a tight, autocratic fist (the Boots); a secondary class made up of the migrant civilian contract workers who were on the island at the time of the Vanishing (the Kaybeyars (named after the KBR contracting company)); and a tertiary class primarily made up of Sri Lankan Tamil asylum seekers who had been detained on the islands (the Agadhi). The Joint Military Commission had sealed itself off from the outside world after a confrontation with a Mauritian expedition, led by members of the Chagossian diaspora, attempted to land on the islands. The members of the expedition were massacred, leading Mauritius to cut off ties with the Joint Military Commission and urge its allies to do the same until the JMC returned the islands to Mauritian control.

California Provisional Government

The Channel Islands of California are effectively under the governance of the  naval personnel that had been stationed on the islands of San Clemente and San Nicolas at the time of the Vanishing.

Canada

A Montreal-dominated confederation unifying the surviving island communities of the St. Lawrence River. Settlements were quickly established along the banks of the St. Lawrence to support food production. Sprawling farming communities and shanty fishing towns can now be found all along the length of the river. Despite maintaining the name of ‘Canada’, only some members of its government consider themselves to be the successors to the former Canadian government. Instead, the majority seem intent to carve out a new future in which Montreal rises to become the major hegemon of North America. Due to the mixing of Anglophone and Francophone communities, especially those from Montreal, most of the communications in Canada are conducted in Franglais - a creole emerging from smatterings of Quebec French, Joual, and English.

Canarias

While many inhabitants of the Canary Islands still identify with the pre-Vanishing Spanish identity, particularly those who had moved to the Canary Islands from the rest of Spain, most of the islands’ population have since embraced the regional identity of the Canarias as a unique nation in its own right. Some of those who still identify as Spaniards, known as the Rojigualdos, opted to return to the Spanish mainland and settle down in the settlements established by colonists from the Balearic Islands. Due to concerns of the overexploitation of the islands’ natural resources (particularly its water and agricultural soil), the Canarias government has relocated tens of thousands of inhabitants to settlements along the coast of the Western Sahara and the oases along the Draa River. Many of these settlements began as penal colonies, with prisoners being given the option to expedite their sentences by working in the settlements for a select period of time. There were accusations that the Canarias government began issuing more arrests for relatively minor charges, typically against the islands’ immigrant and lower socioeconomic status communities, to fill the labor gap in these settlements. The Canarias government is hoping to eventually transform these settlements into a reliable source of food to the population of the islands, with excess fish and agricultural products being exported back to the Canarias mainland. To this end, the Canarias have begun eyeing up the coastal fertile plains of what was once northern and central Morocco, but have faced resistance against its attempts to expand into the region. This resistance mainly comes in the form of Moroccan migrants in Canarias (both in rogue settlements on the continent and in the Canarias mainland) who oppose the nation’s territorial infringement of their traditional homeland. The biggest of these opposition forces is the Moroccan Liberation Forces - a loose coalition of militias made of volunteers from the Canarias Moroccan immigrant community, escapees who had been sentenced to labor in the Western Saharan settlements, and returning members of the Moroccan diaspora from Sicily, Sardinia, the Balearic Islands, and Corsica. Communities loyal to the Moroccan Liberation Forces are scattered in small numbers along the Moroccan coast, but are most concentrated at the mouth of the Oum er-Rbia River.

Caribbean Community

The nations of the Caribbean banded together in the wake of the Vanishing. The Caribbean Community proved to be crucial for coordinating the region’s relief efforts, investments in local agriculture to supplement the region’s overreliance on food imports, and the resettlement of foreign nationals (especially tourists) who were residing in the Caribbean Islands at the time of the mainland population’s disappearance. For instance, a joint task-force made up of Caribbean Community countries was responsible for managing an incident at Jamaica’s Bahia Grand Principe, in which some tourists residing in the resort rioted against Jamaican authorities in response to the rationing of foods and other essentials. In the wake of the Bahia Grand Principe Incident, the rioters, who were predominantly American, were detained and relocated to the nearest surviving American settlement in the Florida Keys. Over time, the members of the Caribbean Community have grown stronger in their cooperation, leading some of its members (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands) to unify into a single political entity known as the Antillean Federation with a shared currency, government, and borderless travel. While initially forming from a union of the English-speaking islands of the Lesser Antilles, the Federation has since grown to include several former Dutch territories (such as Saba, Sint Eustatius, and Sint Maarten). The Antillean Federation is just one of several members in the Caribbean Community, which also comprises many of the Anglophone countries and territories of the region, including: Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica (and its protectorates of Raizalia and the Bay Islands), the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas (which had recently merged with the Turks and Caicos), and Guyana (the remnants of which can be found in the Essequibo Islands). The Caribbean Community maintains close ties with their neighbors Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Martinique, Guadeloupe (which reoccupied Saint Barthélemy and Saint Martin), and Aruboncur (formed from the merger of the ABC islands). The latter three polities are in the process of joining the Caribbean Community. Haiti’s government in exile is hosted in Kingston, Jamaica.

Council of the Baltic Sea States

A loose confederation of island and city-states located along the coast of the Baltic Sea. Its members are all nominally-independent with regards to their internal affairs, but cooperate closely in fighting against piracy and human trafficking, allowing for the free-flow of trade and people, fostering regional development, and providing each other with mutual security guarantees. It is informally referred to as New Hansa or the New Hanseatic League. The confederation is closely aligned with the United Kingdom, which acts as the confederation’s security guarantor and major trade partner. Some prominent members of this confederation include: Usedom, Rügen, Denmark, Gotland, Öland, Värmdö, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa, and the Åland Islands. Initially, most of these island and  city-states viewed themselves as the successors of whichever country they had originally been a part of. However, with the exception of Denmark, most of these entities have since come to develop unique identities of their own, and view themselves as distinct states in their own right. One interesting point of contention is between Denmark (whose national identity has survived the disappearance of the mainland) and Bornholm. While Denmark’s sovereignty over Bornholm is recognized by Denmark, the United Kingdom, and the Council of the Baltic Sea States as a whole, the residents of Bornholm have resisted reintegration into Denmark. While the island is de jure recognized as being part of Denmark, and part of the CBSS as a whole, it is de facto a self-governing state that selectively engages with the outside world.

Central Park Zoo

When the USPG came to power over the remnants of New York City, strict food rationing measures were introduced. The USPG declined to allocate rations to the animals of the zoos of New York City (Central Park Zoo, Queens Zoo, etc.), dismissing such a move to be a superfluous waste of precious resources. Despite the lack of support, the remaining zoos were maintained by skeleton crews of dedicated zookeepers and volunteers, many of whom even drew from their own rations to provide the animals with the best care possible. Amidst tightening rationing measures, the USPG deployed an armed detachment to occupy and requisition Queens Zoo. Some of the zoo’s animals, especially those from the farm and petting zoo, were set aside to act as livestock. The others were summarily killed, either to be butchered as a source of food, or to alleviate the strain on the government’s dwindling food supply. The rest of the zoo’s land was parceled off into farming plots and livestock-rearing grounds. Word spread about the USPG’s seizure of Queens Zoo, prompting the zookeepers of Central Park Zoo to take action. With the assistance of sympathetic volunteers from the surrounding area, the Central Park Zookeepers launched Operation Noah’s Ark : an effort to evacuate all the animal inhabitants of the Central Park Zoo to the continental mainland. The goal of Operation Noah’s Ark was to give the animals the best possible chance of survival, recognizing that any animals who stayed behind would face a certain death. While the USPG eventually caught wind of the plan, subsequently arresting several of the conspirators and slaying many of the animals en route to the mainland, there were a number of successful escapees: 

• A troop of Japanese macaques (who had adapted surprisingly well to the North American wilderness);
• Most of the zoo’s penguins (the released rockhopper penguins established a breeding population in the Gulf of Maine);
• A couple of black and white ruffed lemurs (one of which was shot and killed several years later by a hunter from a USPG settlement along the Hudson River);
• Several exotic birds and parrots

Some of the conspirators of Operation Noah’s Ark also fled to the continental mainland, fearing reprisal from the USPG. Many of the human escapees wound up settling with the Stewards of the Green Planet in the growing settlement of Gaia, where they were largely welcomed into the community with open arms.

Corsica

As Corsica was one of the surviving vestiges of the French Metropole, large swathes of the population - particularly those from Mainland France - sought to reestablish the continuity of the French Fifth Republic from Ajaccio. This movement was met with fierce resistance by Corsican nationalists, many of whom viewed the Vanishing as an opportunity for Corsica to take control over its political sovereignty and cultural identity. Tensions flared between the budding pro-France faction and the resurging pro-Corsican faction. These tensions culminated in a series of firefights, bombings, and sectarian conflicts on the island, in which the United Kingdom intervened. After failing to broker a peace deal between the two factions, the United Kingdom fell back on its “Plan B” of providing free travel to any residents of Corsica who wished to resettle in its colonies on the Northern French Coast. Over the ensuing year, three-quarters of Corsica’s non-native population, and one-tenth of its native population, accepted the British offer to resettle in La Manche.

Cozumel

At the time of the Vanishing, there were two cruise ships docked in the port of San Miguel de Cozumel: Carnival of the Sea (containing around 6000 passengers) and Seven Seas Vikings (containing about 3000 passengers). The relations between the Cozumeleños and the Cruceros (cruise ship occupants) were amicable at first, however tensions began to ferment as the passengers of the Seven Seas Vikings developed a zealous cult of personality around the ship’s captain, who proclaimed himself the Mayan Jarl (despite being neither Mayan nor Nordic). The sheer fervency of this cult was attributed to a form of shared trauma response among the ship’s occupants. Concerns grew as the cult began to attract followers from both the Carnival of the Sea and the local Cozumel populace, coming to a head when several Cozumeleño women were abducted by members of the cult. After a three-day standoff, the women were released, and the occupants of the Seven Seas Vikings were expelled to the continental mainland, where they formed the commune of Mayagard.

Cuba

Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Cuban government has had to pivot hard towards self-sufficiency in order to survive under the boot of U.S. embargoes. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as Cuba was well-positioned to withstand the Vanishing. Unable to import artificial fertilizers and pesticides, Cuban farmers resorted to innovative methods of guerilla farming, organopónicos, and sustainable agriculture in order to ensure that the country could feed itself. Furthermore, by the time of the Vanishing, Cuba had been able to establish a viable offshore oil drilling rig, alleviating significant pressure by erasing their need to import crude oil and petroleum products. In the aftermath of the Vanishing, while many of its neighbors spiraled into chaos as a result of being cut off from the global trade system, Cuba took on a leading role in recovery efforts throughout the Caribbean. Medical personnel and detachments from the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces were deployed as part of regional peacekeeping and disaster relief responses. Cuban farmers were sent to various Caribbean countries in order to provide training and education on organopónicos, so as to ensure the food independence of its neighbors.

Cyprus

With the sudden disappearance of much of the Turkish Republic from mainland Anatolia, unrest fomented against its puppet government in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Capitalizing on growing resentment between Turkish Cypriots and Turkish Settlers (primarily stemming from prolonged economic stagnation, the increasing political encroachment of the Turkish Government, and the perceived erasure of Turkish Cypriot culture), Cyprus seized the opportunity to cross the demilitarized zone, depose the Turkish puppet government, and establish a transitional government over the northern half of the island. Cyprus, now holding the upperhand, introduced a number of sweeping and controversial measures. First, in a move to evict Turkish Settlers, any inhabitants of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus who could not provide formal documentation of their family’s residence in Cyprus prior to July 20th 1974 were subject to deportation to either the surviving insular Turkish communities, or to the uninhabited Anatolian mainland. Second, all valid property titles from prior to 1974 were to be honored, granting Greek Cypriots the right to return to their properties in the north and Turkish Cypriots the right to return to their properties in the south (alternatively, financial compensation was to be provided to any parties willing to surrender their property titles). Third, the newly-established transitional government in the north was to relax restrictions on economic and human contacts between the two halves of the island, including: lifting the economic embargo, reopening the Nicosia International Airport, allowing free movement between the north and south, etc. The goal of this transitional government was to eventually form a unitary state over the island in which Greek and Turkish Cypriots were to enjoy full and equal rights. Other tenets of this proposed merger included: (1) the continued presence of the British Military on the island as a security guarantor; (2) the right to return for the Turkish, Armenian, and Maronite Cypriot diaspora from the British Isles; and (3) an offer of permanent residency to all UN personnel in the United Nations Buffer Zone in Cyprus.

Danubian Confederation

A union between the surviving communities of Csepel Island, Szigetköz, Žitný Ostrov, and Elizabeth Island - three islands located in the stretch of the Danube between Hungary and Slovakia. The population is dominated by Hungarians. This has been a point of contention for the Confederation’s Slovak communities, who make up less than 10% of the population. While the Slovak communities of Žitný Ostrov and Elizabeth Island currently benefit from guarantees of political representation and autonomy, there are nonetheless concerns that the Danubian Confederation is, at its core, a de facto Hungarian state.

Faroe Islands

One sore point in British-Danish relations is the United Kingdom’s support and recognition of an independent government over the Faroe Islands. The Faroe Islands heavily rely on fossil fuel imports from the UK but, in a bid to bolster their self-sufficiency, have recently started working with British engineers to bolster their energy production from wind, tidal, and hydro. Conversely, the Faroe Islands are also a major source of fish and fish product exports to the UK. The UK has entered a formal agreement to provide the Faroe Islands with military protection and, in exchange, operates a small naval facility near Tvøroyri, which serves as an important refueling point for British ships traveling to and from Greenland.

Florida 

The Florida Peninsula is de facto split between two rival governments, both of which claim to be the sole legitimate authority over the territory. Along the Atlantic seaboard, to the east, is the Government of Florida (as a constituent of the USPG). The de facto reach of the Government of Florida’s (USPG) authority roughly extends from the mouth of St. Marys River to the Florida Keys. The government’s authority over the region was established after USPG scouting vessels, and later logistic and supply teams, established contact with the scattered communities surviving on the barrier islands straddling Florida’s coast. Cape Canaveral was chosen as the capital of the Government of Florida (USPG) due to its central location, its high-capacity port (Port Canaveral), and its proximity to the Kennedy Space Center. Along Florida’s Gulf Coast, to the west, is the Republic of Florida - a state which rejects USPG authority and seeks to unify the Florida Peninsula under a united, independent state. The Republic of Florida regards itself as a loose confederation of libertarian-aligned city-states and communities which wish to resist the USPG’s encroachment. The capital of the Republic of Florida is based out of Marco Island, the Republic’s self-proclaimed bulwark against USPG interference. The Republic’s authority extends as far north as Cedar Key. The Republic of Florida has welcomed a number of political exiles fleeing USPG authority, including members of the Minutemen (anti-USPG militants), the American Redoubt (Christian nationalists), and the New Sons of Liberty (Constitutionalists). Confrontations between the Government of Florida (USPG) and the Republic of Florida have been rare, but often culminated in bloody clashes.

Gitmoville

While the Ocean Gate Golf Club had been set aside as a temporary landing strip for American personnel and their families fleeing the Cuban occupation of Guantanamo Bay, only a minority of the recently-displaced Gitmos would go on to be resettled into other territories under the authority of the USPG. Many of the smaller island communities under the USPG were already stretched to their resource limits, and thus could not justify adding even one more household’s worth of mouths to feed. Some Gitmos and their families, particularly those with skill sets that were highly sought after (e.g. healthcare workers, engineers, sailors, etc.) were recruited by the USPG and given secure passage to Long and Staten Islands. Of the approximately 6000 Gitmos who fled the Cuban invasion of Guantanamo Bay, over 4000 remained stranded in what was only supposed to be a temporary shelter set up along the Ocean Gate Golf Club’s main golf course. The Gitmos stuck together, banding together to form a shanty town - dubbed Gitmoville - and plowed the grassy fields of the golf course into meager agricultural land. Due to the limited availability of construction supplies, Gitmoville consists largely of tents, refurbished cargo containers, and whatever materials could be scrounged by the Gitmos. The Gitmos, having already been forced to relocate once, have proven to be particularly resistant to the USPG’s campaign advertising the prospect of relocating to the virgin mainland.

Gonâve

A regional coalition of Caribbean states came together with the intent of deploying a taskforce to restore order to Haiti (the Pan-Caribbean Taskforce). The Haitian government operates little to no authority over the Haitian mainland, with most of the country being controlled by feuding groups of well-armed gangs and warlords that have carved out de facto fiefdoms for themselves. Most of the Haitian government and their families have relocated to Jamaica out of fear for their safety. The rampant instability of Haiti has resulted in an efflux of refugees to the other Caribbean nations, straining the already-overloaded supply chains of the region. Gonâve became the site for an experiment by the Pan-Caribbean Taskforce, which sought to devise a strategy for reinstating the Haitian government on the mainland. After a successful military occupation by the Pan–Caribbean Taskforce, the Free Island of Gonâve was established as an independent territory under the direct responsibility of a temporary, provisional government composed of representatives of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the Caribbean Community, Guadeloupe, and the Haitian government-in-exile. In addition to rooting out the warlords from Gonâve, the Taskforce also worked towards restoring the island’s damaged infrastructure, stimulating local sources of food production, and administering humanitarian aid and relief efforts. The Taskforce intends to use Gonâve as the staging ground for a full-scale operation on the Haitian mainland. Based on the tentative success of the Gonâve Initiative, similar plans have been proposed for the Pan-Caribbean Taskforce to intervene in the islands of Ile a Vache and the Cayemites. A similar proposal to intervene in Tortuga was abandoned after Lougawou, a local warlord, managed to consolidate the island’s warring factions into a united force against outsiders.

Greece

With more than 1.3 million people residing on the Greek islands, the remnants of the Hellenic Republic coalesced into the premier power of the Eastern Mediterranean. The various islands are nominally united under the banner of a unified Greek state, but in practice exercise a considerable level of autonomy over their internal affairs. To prevent the republic from fracturing into regional identities and statelets, the leadership of the Hellenic Republic has pushed forward a narrative of Greek nationalism - calling on the islands to recognize their inherent Greekness and to embrace their unifying Greek identity. This has the side effect of empowering the far-right, supremacist, and irredentist elements of the Greek populace. When the Hellenic Republic begins to resettle the Greek mainland, it does little to stop self-proclaimed oikistes from establishing colonies (or apoikia ) in the historically-Greek regions that were not part of the contemporary Hellenic Republic. Nationalist fervor also manifests as violence and discrimination against non-Greek minorities, with one of the prime examples being a series of pogroms directed against the nation’s Albanian and Arvanite communities. During the ensuing violence, primarily carried out by far-right Greek supremacist paramilitary groups, thousands of Albanians and Arvanites are forced to abandon their properties in the Greek islands and flee to the Pindus Mountains, where they establish informal shanty settlements. Greek settlers also encroach on the islands of Imbros and Tenedos. During the ensuing clashes between the Greek settlers and the resident Turkish populations, much of the Turkish communities are forced to flee to the Anatolian mainland. The Hellenic Republic maintains close ties with Cyprus, though this is a source of tension among non-Greek Cypriots, who are wary of the Hellenic Republic’s designs of eventually taking control of the island.

Great Lakes Federation

Cobbled together from the surviving island communities of the North American Great Lakes, the Great Lakes Federation is a loose alliance of fishing villages, rural townships, and Indigenous communities. As part of the largest and most-populous island in the Great Lakes Federation, the communities of Manitoulin Island play a significant role in shaping the internal and external affairs of the Federation. The Great Lakes Federation spans over the islands of Manitoulin, Cockburn, Drummond, St Joseph, Mackinac, and Bois Blanc.

Guantanamo Bay

During the Vanishing, the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base suddenly lost all contact with the mainland United States government. Believing this to be precursor to a military invasion by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces, the US personnel at Guantanamo (the Gitmos) briefly occupied and hunkered down in the neighboring village of Boquerón. There was a brief exchange of gunfire between the Gitmos and members of the National Revolutionary Police Force, during which one member of the Cuban law enforcement was fatally shot. Eventually, a peace was hastily brokered when members of the Cuban government arrived to explain the situation, with their explanation being validated by intelligence gathered by the base’s on site intelligence group. Initially, the two sides established a shaky truth, however relations rapidly deteriorated when it came to light that Gitmo personnel had been raiding and pillaging the fields by the town of Caimanera for food, and that local farmers had been injured while trying to protect their fields. When the USPG re-established contact with the personnel at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, the Cuban government issued an ultimatum in which “every American” was ordered to vacate Guantanamo Bay within a week. The Cuban government made it clear that, at the end of the week, it would be sending in its Armed Forces to retake Guantanamo Bay, and that anybody left on site would be treated as a foreign invader. Almost the entirety of the naval base’s population, save for a few rogue stragglers who were promptly killed or detained in the ensuing confrontation with Cuban Army, was resettled onto the grounds of the Ocean Gate Golf Club - the largest golf course on Key Largo. The Cubans seized the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base and linked the on-site wind turbines to the country’s electric grid.

Hawaii

Due to its reliance on imports from the U.S. mainland, it didn’t take long for food shortages to strike the communities on Hawaii. Looting, riots, and hoarding broke out as the food shortage loomed. In order to quell the unrest, a provisional government was formed from a coalition comprising local contingents of the American military, local law enforcement, and some members of local government. A rationing system was laid out, in which all essentials are seized by the provisional government and redistributed among the populace. In order to supplement the dwindling food supply, the provisional government grants bonus rations (including higher quality foods, rarer products, etc.) to those who start their own gardens, use their vessels to catch fish, or use their own weapons to hunt the islands’ feral deer and boar populations. It didn't take long for accusations of corruption to arise, as some dissidents found evidence that the rationing system was not being adhered to by higher-ranking military personnel and their families. Meanwhile, opposition began to ferment against the provisional government, leading to the increased presence of various resistance groups. One of the largest resistance groups is the Nation of Hawai’i - an organization vowing to resist the provisional government and restore Native Hawaiian sovereignty over the islands. Another major faction is headed by descendants of the House of Kawānanakoa, which is split between advocating for the full restoration of the Hawaiian monarchy and just having members of the Hawaiian monarchy included in the provisional government.

Hindustan

An extremist Hindutva state established by the Hindi survivors of Greater Mumbai. In the wake of the disappearance of the mainland population, coupled with the lack of resources to support the nearly 25 million inhabitants of Salsette Island, intercommunal violence exploded. This particular bout of intercommunal violence was believed to have been incited by the slaughter of cows in one of the predominantly-Muslim communities of Mumbai. Hundreds to thousands were killed in the ensuing clashes. Hindutva paramilitary groups loyal to the regional government led the mass expulsion of much of the city’s Muslim community under the guise of punishing the inciters of the violence. In actuality, the regional government’s primary motivation for leading the expulsion was to reduce the resource strain on the island’s overcrowded population. The expulsion of the city’s Muslim population, alongside many Hindu moderates and other religious minorities, solidified the state’s shift towards a far-right, extremist ideology. Settlers soon began colonizing the Indian subcontinent, establishing farming communities along the banks of the Narmada River. As the settler population moved inland, this was soon followed by the colonization of the banks of the Ganges. With the Vanishing, the newfound cleanliness of the Ganges was taken as evidence of the river’s sacredness, and serves as a major boon to the Hindutva movement. The goal of this new government has been stated to be to reestablish India on the subcontinent as a Hindu nation, including by rebuilding Hindu holy sites that were lost during the population reset, establishing the state’s hegemony over the Indian subcontinent, and protecting Hindu interests and values in the colonies. 

Indonesia

Some time after the Vanishing, Indonesian troops made landfall in Northern Australia. The Indonesian Government justified this military operation under the pretense of conducting a scouting mission to determine the state of the landscape that has come to replace the formerly populated Australian continent. Over time, it became clear that this military operation was more than just a simple scouting mission. Reports emerged of settlements cropping up along the coastline of the Timor Sea, with these settlements seeming to be populated by colonists from Indonesia (especially from Jakarta, which had been threatened by climate-change-induced flooding and landslides). The Indonesian Government initially dismissed these allegations, stating that these “settlements” were actually the temporary headquarters for the Indonesian military’s scouting and surveillance operations, and that the alleged “colonists” were no more than the engineers, military personnel, and technicians assigned to support these operations. Eventually, it was revealed that the Indonesian Government had entered into negotiations with many of the Indigenous communities on the surviving islands off the coast of Australia. Through these negotiations, the Indonesian Government has broadly agreed to recognize and defend the autonomy of these communities, while providing them with resources and logistical support to move them toward self-sufficiency, in exchange for various concessions. These concessions ranged from diplomatic recognition of Indonesia’s occupation of Northern Australia, leasing of ports to be used by the Indonesian Navy, and sharing maritime rights. Examples of Indigenous communities which accept “Association Status” with Indonesia include those of: Ratuati Irara (Tiwi Islands), the Torres Strait Islands, and Kunhanhaa (Mornington Island). Many of those from these communities who objected to Indonesian vassalage wound up leaving for Tasmania, where the remnants of the Australian government continue to operate.

Italy

The remnants of the Italian government in Sicily led what came to be known as the Italian Reunification . From Sicily, the Italian Government unified the Italian insular communities (Capri, Ischia, Elba, Tremiti Islands, Porto Cesareo, etc.) and led the resettlement of the Italian mainland. Initial settlement efforts are concentrated in Southern Italy, largely in the territories that were once part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies - a fact which was seen as a source of pride among some Sicilians. While Italian remains the language of official government communication, Sicilian dominates as the language of informal, day-to-day communication. On the Italian mainland, settlements largely take one of two forms: large plots of farmland owned by a single, large family unit; or quaint fishing villages established by a handful of settlers, typically all arriving from the same insular community. Most of these settlements are dominated by Sicilians, though there are a handful of communities where neither Italian nor Sicilian dominate. For instance, the settlement of Bashkia (facing the Ionian Sea) is almost entirely populated by Arbëreshë people. There are also a number of settlements established by settlers from Elba, where the Tuscan dialect is almost exclusively spoken. The Italian Reunification has hit two major roadblocks. First, there is Sardinia, where large swathes of the population have seized the Vanishing as an opportunity to establish their own, distinct Sardinian nation. Sardinian nationalism has only become more entrenched over time, as pro-reunification Sardinians have largely opted to leave the island for settlements on the mainland (Pinna, the largest settlement on the Italian mainland, with a population of around 3500, is mostly inhabited by Sardinians). Second, there is Venice, which has also resisted efforts to reintegrate into Italy. Venetians have started colonizing the mainland from the islands of the Venetian Lagoon, and largely have little interest in surrendering their newfound sovereignty to the far-off authorities in Sicily. There was a short-lived attempt by the Sicilian mafia to usurp the Italian government in Sicily, culminating in a string of bloody clashes between the Carabinieri and Cosa Nostra in the streets of Palermo. After the uprising was suppressed, the Carabinieri brutally cracked down on remaining mafia holdouts throughout the island (the Reclamation). The mafia, already on the decline prior to the Vanishing and now deprived from their sources of income from the Italian mainland, put up a meager resistance. A handful of members of the Caruana clan are believed to have fled Sicily to settlements on the Italian mainland, but - for all intents and purposes - the mafia is considered to have been extinguished.

Jetarktétqal

The territory is inhabited by descendants of the Kawésqar of Villa Puerto Edén. The people of Jetarktétqal have adopted a semi-nomadic lifestyle, spending much of the year traveling throughout the waters of Jetarktétqal aboard a fleet of canoes, but regularly returning to the island's only permanent settlement during the winter. Within this community, there has been a resurgence of the Kawésqar language, with about 20% of its inhabitants being fluent in the language. The community has no interest in engaging with outsiders, without necessarily being immediately hostile to them.

Korea

Japan, under the pretense of securing the resources needed to sustain its population after the loss of most imports, began establishing settlements on the eastern coast of the Korean Peninsula. Many of these communities began as small fishing, whaling, or farming towns, with the vast majority of their products being sent back to the Japanese mainland. These settlements gradually became more expansive. Extensive settlement occurred in the Tumen River Basin, encouraged by the Japanese Government as a means of combating overpopulation and crowding. Mining communities were also established along the Taebaek Mountains straddling the peninsula’s eastern coast. Threatened by the encroachment of Japan, many of the surviving insular communities of what had once been South Korea have flocked to the banner of the Zhaoshangju Corridor. There has also been a significant push by these surviving communities to rapidly re-establish Korean settlement on the peninsula. Korean settlers (primarily from Jeju, Geojedo, Yeongdo, and Yeongjongdo) have rapidly spread out along the southwest coast of the Korean peninsula. As the main goal of these settlements was to reaffirm Korea’s claim to the peninsula, there has been an emphasis on a large number of small and dispersed settlements, resulting in a culture of frontiermanship as many of these settlements are expected to fend for themselves with limited support from the insular communities. As migration from the insular Korean communities slowed down, Korean authorities begin to encourage the creation of frontier settlements by returning members of the Korean diaspora (Dongpo/Gyopo towns), immigrants from elsewhere in the Zhaoshangju Corridor (allured by the promise of generous allotments of private land), and the former inhabitants of the Kuril Islands (which had been annexed by Japan).

Madagascar

Despite being an island country, Madagascar’s dependence on food and fuel imports meant that the disappearance of the mainland’s population during the Vanishing had a disastrous effect on Malagasay society. Attempts by the government to ration out its stockpile of essential goods (e.g. fuel, medication, food, etc.) were met with fierce resistance and allegations of corruption. These tensions were fueled by ethnic friction between the Merina and the Côtiers. Members of the opposition accused the president, an ethnic Merina, and his government, largely composed of ethnic Merina, of hoarding resources for the populations of the Malagasay highlands. Tensions continued to flare when the sudden lack of import of pesticides left the government ill-prepared to stave off a locust infestation, putting greater strain on the country’s food supply. Tensions reached a tipping point when the police’s use of disproportionate force against a group of protestors resulted in the death of a leading member of the opposition. An armed uprising against the Highlander-dominated government rallied around the young, charismatic Côtier mayor of the port city of Toamasina. The country is currently locked in the throes of a deadly civil war, largely delineated along ethnic lines, between the urban elite of the highlands and the predominantly-rural communities of the coast. During the war, many of the island’s ethnic minorities (e.g. the Comorans, the Indian Karanas, the Chinese Sinoas, and the European Vazahas) became the target of racial violence, looting, and political violence. This prompted a significant exodus of the island’s minority population, with most fleeing to the neighboring communities of Mauritius, Reunion, and the Comoros. A small number of Chinese Sinoas fled to the mainland African coast, where they established a confederation of communities that came to be known as Sengchi . Sengchi became a safe haven for not just Chinese Sinoas, but also Chinese refugees fleeing persecution in the wake of race riots in Zanzibar, the invasion of Mayotte, and communal violence in Mombasa. Sengchi developed a unique syncretic blend of Chinese-African culture.

Madeira

Unlike the Azores’ disastrous efforts to reach the Portuguese mainland, the search parties sent by Madeira successfully managed to reach the continent (owing much of their success to being able to avoid the brunt of Windstorm Raul). The Madeirans made contact with the survivors of the few communities located on the barrier islands to the south of Algarve. Many of the several hundred inhabitants of Armona and Culatra accepted offers to be resettled in Madeira (though a small handful chose to stay behind, refusing to abandon their properties). Madeira, citing a lack of fuel and general interest, made very few return trips back to the Portuguese mainland.

Mainland USA

Some groups decided to try their luck on the virgin lands of the mainland of what had once been the United States of America. Some examples of “Pilgrims” who chose to leave the USPG islands to establish new settlements and communities on the mainland include: Children of Earth (an anarcho primitivist commune which regards the Vanishing as a sign that humanity must return to a pre-capitalist and deindustrialized society (Eden)); Stewards of the Green Planet (a group which sought to establish a community based on the principles of sustainability and egalitarianism (Gaia)); The Knights of Avalon (a white nationalist groups seeking to reclaim the mainland as a white ethnostate (Avalon)); and the Royal Shire of Sylvania (a group of renaissance actors who, in a form of collective trauma response, have fully adopted the persona of the characters they play (Sylvania)). Seeing the exodus of Pilgrims as a way of alleviating the local demand for resources, the USPG facilitated and even tacitly encouraged the exodus of disenfranchised populations. Leaflets were disseminated in the neighborhoods hardest hit by Hurricane Vincent, promising its residents a new start on the continent (“The Garden of Eden Awaits!”). Simultaneously, the USPG made it nearly-impossible for those leaving to return from the mainland. The prohibition of re-entry from the mainland was justified under the pretense of clamping down on the militant activities of the Minutemen (anti-USPG insurgents who had previously taken advantage of the lack of USPG presence on the continental mainland to convene, organize, and launch attacks against USPG personnel). 

        Other States:

• Canaan: Founded by pilgrims from the Nation of Islam.

• Judah: Founded by Black Israelites, intended to serve as a staging ground for the construction of a fleet that can carry its most devout followers to Judea.

• Moab: Founded by followers of the Moorish Science Temple of America.

• Lake Michigan comes to be viewed as a sacred lake by all three of these states.

Malay City States (Mandala)

A collection of insular city states off the coast of the Malay Peninsula that are heavily reliant on support from Indonesia. Indonesia not only acts as their security guarantor against piracy, particularly from the Andaman Pirates Confederacy, but also their main source of imports of essential goods. Some of the Malay City States under Indonesian influence are: Phuket, George Town, Singapore, Langkawi, and the Klang Islands. Indonesia is currently working to link the infrastructure of the Malay City States to that of the Indonesian mainland, presumably with the overarching goal of eventually subsuming them into Indonesia proper.

Minutemen

The Minutemen are the largest organized front opposing USPG authority. While the Minutemen can broadly be classified as a coalition of anti-USPG factions, each with their own goals and objectives, they are united in the shared goal of resisting USPG authority over North America. Some Minutemen have accused President Hugh Desmond of taking advantage of the Vanishing to unilaterally establish himself as the leader of what remains of the United States of America. Some conspiracy theorists within the ranks of the Minutemen contend that Hugh Desmond was somehow responsible for the Vanishing, suggesting that he had carefully engineered the situation to make himself the despot of the Islands. The Minutemen are composed of nationalists, Christian fundamentalists, self-proclaimed constitutionalists, sovereign citizens, and those who generally resent the USPG’s encroachment into their communities. The Minutemen initially had a strong presence on Staten Island, where they preyed on the populace’s hesitance over being absorbed into a government ruled from Queens. However, after a series of terrorist attacks, in which Minutemen attempted to bomb the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge to physically separate Staten Island from Long Island, the USPG waged an armed campaign to root them out. Many of the Minutemen holdouts in Staten Island eventually fled to the continental mainland, where they eventually reorganized under the Minutemen Republic - which they contend is the true successor to the pre-Vanishing United States of America.

Netherlands

During the Vanishing, much of the Netherlands’ flood control measures (the dikes and ditches built to contain the rivers on the mainland, the walls and artificial islands built to hold back the sea, the pumping stations built to keep the mainland dry) disappeared in an instant. The effects were devastating. In a matter of weeks, much of the Netherlands’ mainland was directly lost to flooding. In the aftermath, around 40% of the former country was either underwater or functionally lost during high tide. Another consequence of the Vanishing was that the vast majority of the landmass created during the Netherlands’ long history of land reclamation disappeared beneath the sea. While a handful of Dutch communities survived the Vanishing itself, due to being located on the landmass of the original islands that had existed prior to land reclamation, the sudden flooding results in many of these islands becoming waterlogged, unstable, and at severe risk of subsequent erosion and flooding. As a result, the vast majority of the surviving communities are evacuated by the British Continental Survey Force (BCSF) to the British Isles. With the exception of several holdout communities of Frisian nationalists, the Dutch Archipelago is largely abandoned.

New Calais

A settlement established on the former site of Old Calais, along the Opal Coast of France, at the narrowest point along the English Channel. The settlement was established through the joint efforts of the British Continental Survey Force (BCSF) and various civilian advocacy groups established by French expats living in the United Kingdom. The British Government endorsed the establishment of New Calais to: (1) provide a base camp for operations by the BCSF to explore the rest of mainland Europe, (2) reduce the resource demand in the British Home Islands, and (3) providing a living laboratory for testing new innovations for recolonizing the lands left abandoned during the Vanishing. On the other hand, French expats tended to support the establishment of New Calais out of a sense of obligation to keep the French nation and culture alive. New Calais, especially during its initial establishment, received a significant amount of logistical support and oversight from the British Government. During these initial expeditions, the BCSF worked with British and French architects and engineers to devise strategies for drawing upon locally-available resources to quickly develop housing and food sovereignty. The success of New Calais led the BCSF to establish a second major settlement, Brittany and La Manche.

North Borneo

Following the disappearance of mainland Malaysia’s government, military, and population, tensions exploded in North Borneo. A coalition of Islamic insurgents and loyalists to the Sultanate of Sulu declared the formation of the Islamic Republic of North Borneo, spanning the northeastern portions of Sabah. The eventual goal of this coalition was to use the nascent Islamic Republic as a launching point for an invasion of the Sulu Islands. The Islamic Republic of North Borneo was fairly short-lived, as the Filipino military swiftly moved in to crack down on the insurgents. In its place, the Filipino government established an independent puppet state, the Republic of Sabah, working with Indigenous civilian groups and local governments to prop up a friendly regime and root out Moro insurgents and anti-Filipino groups. In Sarawak, the local government narrowly avoided an uprising of its own, one spearheaded by separatist forces primarily composed of the region’s non-Malay Indigenous peoples. The uprising was put down, at least in the major cities along Sarawak’s coast, however many of the uprising’s leaders retreated to the highlands where they continued their rebellion. Indonesia props up Sarawak’s current government. Sarawak became a flashpoint for the brewing cold war between Indonesia and the Philippines, as Indonesia has recently accused the Philippines of supplying Sarawakian separatists with arms and supplies - allegedly with the goal of establishing a similar puppet regime as the one set up in Sabah.

Northern Ireland

Amidst the chaos following the Vanishing, Northern Ireland saw a resurgence in sporadic (yet rapidly escalating fighting) between self-proclaimed republican and loyalist paramilitaries. This resurgence of sectarian tensions was exacerbated by the introduction of emergency rationing measures, as communities clashed over dwindling supplies of basic necessities. The mutual segregation of Catholic and Protestant communities hardened as communities not only shut themselves off from outsiders, but also conducted small-scale raids against one another. As the conflict began to spill over into the self-proclaimed republican and loyalist diaspora in the Republic of Ireland and the British mainland, the Irish and British governments agreed to intervene before the situation devolved into a state akin to The Troubles. In an attempt to quell the mounting tensions, an Anglo-Irish Condominium is established over Northern Ireland. Under this arrangement, Northern Irish elected officials are granted seats in both the British House of Commons and the Irish Dáil (in addition to the continued existence of the Irish Northern Assembly); a divided-sovereignty system is implemented (in which locals can choose whether they fell under British or Irish jurisdiction); and more issues are devolved to the British–Irish Intergovernmental Conference.

Polonia

Inspired by the success of the BCSF settlements in France (New Calais, La Manche, and Brittany), the British Government began supporting the settlement of the Polish Baltic Sea Coast by Polish Britons. Working closely with the surviving Polish communities in Gdansk, Usedom, and Wolin, the BCSF provides material and logistic support to members of the Polish diaspora in the British Isles who wish to contribute to the re-establishment of the Polish state in their pre-Vanishing homeland. While officially referred to as the ‘BCSF Transitional Mandate for the Polish Baltic Sea Coast’, the region is informally known as Polonia in recognition of its settlement by members of the Polish diaspora. The layout of these settlements was designed through a close collaboration between the BCSF, French architects of the New Calais project, and the Polish community of the remnants of Gdansk. Many of the initial settlements are centered around small, 28ft x 8ft homes that are designed to require little maintenance, be mass-producible, and be easily-modifiable. Whenever possible, vital infrastructure - such as sewage and power - is linked to the existing networks found in the surviving Polish island communities. While originally intended to serve as a homeland for the Polish diaspora in Britain, Polonia soon became the home to returning members of the Polish diaspora from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Sweden. It isn’t long before the population of Polonia swells to exceed that of the surviving communities of the former Republic of Poland.

Rif

A small collection of settlements in what was once Northern Morocco founded by returning members of the Riffian diaspora, primarily from the Balearic Islands. The former coastline of Morocco is dotted with communities established by returning members of the wider Moroccan diaspora; however Rif (formally the New Republic of the Rif) was established by self-declared Riffian separatists and Berberists who hope to secure Rif’s future as an independent polity.

Russia

The self-proclaimed successor to the Russian Federation, founded by the roughly 300,000 inhabitants of Kotlin Island, Vasilyevsky Island, and the Petrogradsky District. Large sections of the Saint Petersburg Dam suddenly disappeared during the Vanishing, leaving the insular communities vulnerable to flooding. On the mainland, the canals that had been etched into Saint Petersburg’s cityscape disappeared overnight, almost as if the land itself had scabbed over an open wound. The Provisional Russian Government relocates to the Peter and Paul Fortress on Zayachy Island. The resettlement of the Russian mainland has largely been concentrated along the banks of the Neva River.

Sri Lanka

As a nation that was incredibly reliant on the import of basic necessities - including food, petroleum, and medications - the Sri Lankan government implemented a series of supply rationing measures. These rationing measures were, however, not enough to carry the country over through a devastating drought season. In a bid to cling onto power, the ruling Sri Lankan Government accused the Tamil National Alliance of hoarding food within Tamil communities. The Sri Lankan Government pointed to the community-led relief efforts led by the Tamil National Alliance to distribute supplies and provide aid in Tamil communities, claiming that these efforts intentionally excluded Sinhalese. Tensions exploded when the Sri Lankan Government moved the military into Batticaloa to raid food distribution centers established by the Tamil National Alliance, arrest local leaders for non-compliance with rationing orders, and seize control of rice paddy fields. This prompted massive backlash from Tamil organizations all throughout the country, leading the Sri Lankan Government to crackdown hard on dissenters. As the Sri Lankan military moved into Tamil communities under the pretense of quelling the rebellion, they seized agricultural land to be transferred to allies of the Sri Lankan Government. Meanwhile, many Tamils were forced to flee their communities, and even the island altogether, in order to avoid the Sri Lankan Government’s intensifying pogroms and raids. Many flocked to the Indian Subcontinent, where they resettled in droves in the burgeoning nation of Tamilakam - founded by Tamil survivors from Srirangam Island.

Sorath

Following the pogroms against Mumbai’s Muslim community, many Mumbaikar Muslims fled to the Muslim-friendly states of Lakshadweep and Bangladesh. However, the vast majority of expelled Mumbaikar Muslims opted not to set out on the perilous trip, and instead decided to settle down in all settlements on the Western Portion of the Kathiawar Peninsula. The resulting loose confederation of settlements came to be known as Sorath, and quickly became a safe haven for Mumbaikar Muslims fleeing Hindutva persecution. Over time, as Mumbai and its colonies descended deeper into far-right Hindutva ideology, the settlements of Sorath grew increasingly cosmopolitan as waves of Christians, Zoroastrians, and Hindu moderates fled persecution. However, Sorath’s sovereignty is a subject of increasing concern, especially as Hindustan has established a foothold on Diu Island.

South India

South India is home to hundreds, if not thousands, of communities which survived the Vanishing. These communities can be found on the barrier islands that straddle the region’s coast and on the river islands scattered inland. The vast majority of these surviving communities operate fairly independently from one another, with most turning inward to attend to the needs of their communities while only occasionally interacting with their neighbors to conduct minor trade or skirmish over territorial land grabs. In the immediate wake of the Vanishing, many of these communities collapsed in the absence of support from the mainland, succumbing to starvation, infighting, or disease. Roaming parties of bandit raiders are a common sight on the mainland, the largest of which were established by the remnants of collapsed communities. However, anarchy does not prevail over all of South India - some of the surviving communities have consolidated to form organized political entities:

• Andhra: A predominantly agrarian state founded by Telugu communities from the islands of the Krishna-Godavari Delta. The communities of the Krishna-Godavari Delta began to consolidate as their bountiful harvests of rice and coconuts, among other agricultural goods, began to attract the unwanted attention of bandit raiding parties. To defend against these raiding parties, the communities of Andhra formed a joint defense force formed from members of each of their communities. To receive protection from the joint defense force, each community was to contribute a number of soldiers proportional to their population. This defense pact eventually evolved into a stronger political entity as the communities of Andhra created agreements to share resources in times of hardship, cooperate in the exploration and settlement of the Godavari River valley, and allow free movement among themselves.

• Kochi: A city-state founded from the insular remnants of Kochi. The modern city-state of Kochi emerged from the consolidation of these surviving insular communities to defend against piracy, share resources, and negotiate more favorable trade conditions with the neighboring state of Lakshadweep. Kochi is an religiously cosmopolitan city, with its population being roughly evenly split between Hindus, Christians, and Muslims - the latter of which has seen significant growth from the arrival of migrants from the Maldives (many of which have settled into the burgeoning communities on the Kochite mainland to avoid overcrowding back home).

• Lakshadweep: Following the disappearance of the mainland population, the islands of Lakshadweep emerged relatively unscathed. With a modest population, waters rich in sea life, and four low-temperature thermal desalination plants, Lakshadweep was well positioned to survive the Vanishing. In the wake of the Vanishing, Lakshadweep was able to establish close ties with neighboring communities in the Maldives and Kochi, leveraging its surplus availability of fish to enter into favorable trade deals for any resources that could not be procured from the islands themselves.

• Srirangapatna: A city-state founded by survivors from the eponymous city and island. Many of the inhabitants of Srirangapatna attribute their survival of the Vanishing to their proximity to the Ranganathaswamy Temple, leading to a surge in religious zealotry and radicalism. The city-state’s Muslim inhabitants face persecution and are confronted with the option of conversion or expulsion.

• Tamilakam: A Tamil state founded by survivors of the Vanishing from Srirangam. The survivors from Srirangam followed the Kaveri River eastwards, establishing contact with other surviving Tamil communities along the way. They eventually made contact with the survivors of Pamban Island, which was at the same time becoming a safe haven for Tamil refugees fleeing crackdowns by the Sri Lankan Government. Tens of thousands of Sri Lankan Tamil refugees were welcomed to the now-uninhabited Indian subcontinent, where they were invited to form new communities under the banner of a united Tamil nation.

Spain

With the exception of a few small islands off the Spanish coast, the Balearic Islands were one of the few surviving vestiges of Spain in the Mediterranean. As time passed, the Balearic Islands were consumed by a debate over what the future of the islands should look like. The debate was split into three broad camps: the Rojigualdos, the Balears, and the Estelades. The Rojigualdos viewed the Balearic Islands as the successor of the pre-Vanishing Kingdom of Spain, and considered it the islands’ duty to ensure the Spanish national identity and state lives on. This perspective was particularly popular among those who had moved to the Balearic Islands from other parts of Spain. The current governing party of the Balearic Islands is largely made up of self-declared Rojigualdos. The Balears viewed the Balearic Islands as a unique entity unto themselves, with no obligation to the pre-Vanishing Kingdom of Spain. Instead, they viewed the Vanishing as a prime opportunity for the regional identity of the Balearic Islands to be embraced, and for the islands to enter the post-Vanishing world as their own nation. The Estelades were generally composed of those who see themselves as Catalans first. Their intention was to reclaim the former territories of the Països Catalans, and potentially the Iberian Peninsula as a whole, as the rightful homeland of the Catalan people. Currently, the government of the Balearic Islands is encouraging settlement along the Spanish coast between the Ebro and the Segura Rivers. The settlements along the mainland are primarily populated by Rojigualdos, Estelades, and Xuetes (the descendants of Spanish Crypto-Jews). Tensions are rising, as the Rojigualdos and Estelades increasingly clash against one another in both the islands and on the mainland.

Texas

An independent Republic of Texas founded by survivors from the Texas Barrier Islands. While the de facto capital is currently located in Galveston, the state’s largest settlement, there are plans underway to build a new city, Lone Star City, on the Texan mainland in Galveston Bay. In order to combat overcrowding on the islands and reinforce the Republic of Texas’ claims to the mainland, the nation’s leadership has encouraged the resettlement of the coast. New communities have begun to pop up in the estuaries dotting the Texas coastline, with the majority of settlers choosing to settle down in the Galveston Bay Area. To support the resettlement of the mainland, authorities have ordered the demolition and salvage of resources from former tourist hotspots. Building materials from beachside hotels, amusement parks, and storefronts have been sent to the mainland to support the establishment of new communities.

Tierra del Fuego

In the wake of the Vanishing, the communities of Tierra del Fuego fared fairly well. Communities on both sides of the Argentine-Chilean border swiftly came together, casting any distinction based on their pre-Vanishing citizenship. The island was well-poised to withstand the disappearance of the population of the continental mainland. The surrounding water was rich in sea life; the grasslands are home to herds of sheep; oil wells and refineries in the north pump enough petroleum to meet the communities’ energy demands; and the former Argentine side of the island even boasts a handful of electronics factories. All in all, the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are able to enjoy a similar quality of life to what they had known before the Vanishing. Furthermore, with the vast majority of outside media no longer available, the communities of Tierra del Fuego - and the surrounding islands - see a revitalization of local culture. Some of the islands’ Indigenous Peoples (Yahgan, Selk'nam) see a resurgence in interest in their cultures and traditions - both within and outside of their traditional communities. A handful of dedicated Yahgans create a language nest for their language and, recently, have seen several children raised as native speakers. The small number of descendants of the Selk'nam work tirelessly to document and revive knowledge of their ancestors’ ceremonies, traditions, and costumes. The people of Tierra del Fuego, particularly those from what was once the Argentine side of the island, consider the neighboring community of the Falkland Islands to be part of their domain - a fact which has been fervently rejected by the Falkland Islanders. The remnants of the Argentine Armed Forces were rallied in an invasion of the islands. A small fleet of patrol vessels was launched from the Ushuaia Naval Base, only to be decimated by a military response by the garrison stationed at RAF Mount Pleasant. Of the seven patrol ships deployed from Ushuaia Naval Base, five were sunk in the skirmish. One of the remaining patrol ships was damaged to the point where it needed to be towed back to Tierra del Fuego by the other. While Tierra del Fuego still maintains its claims over the Falklands, even despite waning interest in the general populace, it has yet to engage in another armed confrontation.

Tonga

The incumbent Prime Minister, facing mounting dissatisfaction and contempt due to allegations of corruption (e.g. preferentially distributing emergency aid to friends and family), fled the country after his family’s personal estate was raided by rioters. The Prime Minister and his family fled to Fiji, where they were granted asylum by the Fijian Government. In the wake of the ensuing political crisis, the King of Tonga dissolved the Legislative Assembly and created an emergency government largely composed of nobles, military staff, and close allies of the King. Pro-democracy protesters who voiced their opposition to the emergency government were publicly dismissed as the corrupt benefactors of the deposed Prime Minister. In a bid to keep the peace, many prominent pro-democracy advocates were arrested and detained at the open air prison on ʻAtā (all under the guise of clamping down on a coup attempt by the deposed Prime Minister). Due to the country’s reliance on imported diesel, as well as the loss of arable land to the effects of climate change, the King (at the behest of the military) looked to resources beyond Tonga’s borders. Raiding parties (or kalia , named after the ancient Tongan seafaring vessels) were assembled to loot nearby settlements in Niue, Samoa, Wallis and Futuna, and some of the outlying communities of Fiji’s Lau Islands. Tonga’s kalia came to have a major influence in the region, with the influence of the leaders of prominent and successful kalia even rivaling that of the King and his emergency government. The kalia, for instance, effectively dissolved the government of Wallis and Futuna by supporting coups by pretenders to the crowns of Uvea, Sigave, and Alo. These three kingdoms are now effectively the puppet states to various Tongan kalia. One kalia established itself in Rotuma - agreeing to defend the island’s waters against Fijian fishing vessels in exchange for regular tributes.

Tyre

In a unique phenomenon observed in few other places on Earth, the portions of the City of Tyre that had been built on the original island (that had existed prior to being joined to the coast by Alexander the Great’s causeway) were spared from the mass disappearance of the mainland population. Conversely, the portions of Tyre that had been built on the causeway vanished along with the rest of humanity’s imprint on the continental mainland. The causeway itself vanished too, as if it had suddenly sunk back into the sea. Many of the tens of thousands surviving inhabitants of Tyre gradually migrate out onto the mainland and form settlements on the former Lebanese coast. There has been a small resurgence of Phoenicianism, particularly among the city’s Maronite population, leading some settlements to adopt a syncretic Arab-Phoenician identity.

Oceania City

Oceania City was established as a joint-venture between the Government of New Zealand and the Australian Government in Tasmania. The primary goals behind the construction of Oceania City were to: (1) provide a well-serviced destination for refugees fleeing climate disaster in the Pacific; (2) provide a suitable base for the extraction of resources unavailable on Tasmania or the islands of New Zealand (especially timber and minerals); and (3) contest the encroachment of the Indonesia over the entirety of the Australian landmass. New Zealand and Tasmania (Australia) saw competition with Indonesia over the whole of the Australian continent as inevitable, and so deemed it strategically necessary to secure their hold over the southern portions of the landmass. Meanwhile, almost the entirety of Nauru’s population was forced to abandon their country due to their island’s heavy dependence on the import of basic necessities. While many of the Nauruans scattered throughout the Pacific, the creation of Oceania City allowed the Nauruan diaspora to reconsolidate in the neighborhood of New Denigomodu. A similar fate was met by Tuvalu, which also heavily relied on the import of foods and construction materials. While Tuvalu was initially able to supplement its food supply with fishing - slowing emigration from the country - the majority of Tuvaluans were eventually forced to abandon their country in the wake of Cyclone Wendell, which sent 3-4 meter tall waves crashing over the island. The vast majority of the nation’s infrastructure, agricultural lands, and freshwater sources were heavily-damaged or rendered unusable. Fleets sent by the Australian and New Zealand Governments were sent to assist in evacuation efforts and relocate the majority of Tuvaluans to Oceania City, where they established the neighborhood of Fongafale. Other significant diaspora groups in Oceania City include: Marshallese, Palauans, and Kiribatians. Many have criticized Oceania City as being equivalent to a giant, open-air detention center, through which the governments of New Zealand and Australia have effectively denied refugees entry into the mainland of their countries. Others have pointed out that certain groups (particularly White and Asian refugees) are far more likely to be granted passage to the main islands rather than be relegated to Oceania City.

United States Provisional Government

Moments before the Vanishing, Hurricane Vincent made landfall as a Category 3 hurricane on Long Island, unleashing catastrophic damage. In anticipation of Hurricane Vincent, mandatory evacuation orders were issued to relocate people from storm surge zones on the south of the island to a series of shelters located inland. National Guard troops were deployed at various points along Long Island and New York City to assist with evacuation efforts. Despite all these preparations, it was estimated that at least 400 people were killed by the direct impacts of flooding and high winds. Hundreds of thousands of homes were severely damaged by the storm, large swathes of the subway system were submerged under water, and LaGuardia Airport was rendered unusable by the sloshing floodwaters. All this was, of course, exacerbated by the sudden onset of the Vanishing. Suddenly, the people of Long Island (and Staten Island for that matter) were left to fend for themselves with no support from the American mainland. This was especially pressing, as the loss of power and water flowing from upstate New York put an immense strain on the region’s strained and damaged infrastructure. When word spread of the mass disappearance of people from the mainland, and with local authorities caught up in the confusion, chaos became rampant. Looting became widespread. Thousands of desperate people clamored their way across the East River and the Staten Island Sound only to be met with the emptiness of the mainland. Some communities banded together into factions to compete over dwindling resources and supplies. Under the leadership of Hugh Desmond, Borough President of Queens, some detachments of the National Guard and the US Army Corps of Engineers - which had been deployed to the region to assist in hurricane relief efforts - continued to administer relief efforts. Detachments were sent to secure, repair, and restore vital infrastructure such as the Ravenswood Generating Station, LaGuardia and JFK airports, and water pumping and sanitation stations. The areas established around these key infrastructure points become “safe zones” in which the United States Provisional Government (composed of Hugh Desmond as President, Emilia Ramos (former Borough President of Brooklyn) as Deputy, and key leadership positions filled by members of their respective community boards. Widely regarded as the successor to the New York City government, and of the United States as a whole, the USPG received support from loyalists within the National Guard, the US Army Corps of Engineers, and the remnants of the NYPD. Despite starting with just limited authority over the south end of Long Island, the USPG eventually came to establish a notable presence along the Atlantic Seaboard. The USPG first moved to unite Long Island, recognizing the importance of repairing the Long Island Rail Railroad system and securing the agriculturally-productive lands of Suffolk County. Meanwhile, while Staten Island was utterly devastated by Hurricane Vincent, Luca Savino (former Borough President of Staten Island) initially refused to join the ranks of the USPG. The Savino administration’s mismanagement of a fire at the Pouch Terminal Generating Station, which left the facility beyond repair, eventually resulted in him stepping down and handing over jurisdiction of Staten Island to a caretaker committee established by the USPG. The USPG would go on to absorb other island communities along the Atlantic Seaboard - Martha's Vineyard, Johns Island, Nantucket, and Aquidneck Island. In order to conserve fuel, the USPG extensively recruits from local sailing clubs, yacht racing associations, and kayaking groups in order to establish a non-powered sailing fleet capable of ferrying people, supplies, and information along the Atlantic Seaboard. While uniting the islands of the Atlantic seaboard, the USPG was forced to stretch its resources incredibly thin, and eventually resorted to introducing harsh rationing laws in order to conserve the dwindling supply of food, water, and electricity. 

• The Charons: In the wake of the Vanishing, the USPG was struck by a wave of deaths in the form of people losing access to vital medication and medical care, starvation, and communal violence. The USPG was desperate to get rid of the bodies, fearing a public health crisis from the spread of disease otherwise, but had limited options. The morgue and graveyards on the islands themselves had quickly filled up. Cremation would have resulted in the consumption of the now-limited supply of fuel. Instead, Hart Island was reopened as a site for mass graves to dispose of the bodies from throughout the islands of the USPG. The job of ferrying the bodies to Hart Island, and then burying them, is carried out by a group of individuals who come to be known as the Charons. The Charons are primarily made up of former prisoners from Rikers Island and a handful of individuals with no other means of supporting themselves.

Vanuatu

In the wake of the Vanishing, and the subsequent collapse of the global economy and status quo, large swathes of the Vanuatuan population (especially on Pentecost Island) began to align with the Turaga movement. The Turaga movement called on the people and government of Vanuatu to turn away from the Western economic systems brought over by colonialism, and to instead embrace traditional Melanesian customs with a modern twist. With the rise of Turaga, a growing number of Vanuatu’s population came to embrace a kastom economy (based on the exchange of items of customary wealth), began working through the Tangbunia rather than the National Bank, and adopted the Avoiuli as a writing system for day-to-day communication. Nowadays, Vanuatu is heavily-decentralized, with the national government only really playing a prominent role in Port Vila and Luganville. An estimated 40% to 60% of the population identifies with the Turaga ideology. Other prominent societies include the Nagriamel libertarian communes of Espiritu Santo, the John Frum and King William movements of Tanna Island, and a nascent Bahá’í community in Lenakel.

Vietnam

The remnants of pre-Vanishing Vietnam have reconsolidated in the handful of communities surviving on the islands of the Mekong Delta. These surviving communities are considered to comprise the ‘rice bowl’ of the region, with much of its land being dedicated to the cultivation of rice and much of its waters being dedicated to the management of fisheries. Sprawling networks of canals criss-cross across many of the islands, facilitating the transport of agricultural goods abroad. Vietnam’s status as the regional rice bowl has made it a flashpoint in the brewing cold war between Indonesia and the Philippines. While Vietnam currently exports its food surplus to both countries, the Vietnamese Government is closely-aligned with the Philippines. Currently, the South China Sea Islands are de facto divided between the Philippines and Brunei; however the Philippines has opened its claimed territorial waters to Vietnamese fishing vessels, and has pledged to involve Vietnam on any resource extraction projects in the region. Indonesia, in a bid to counter the Philippines’ influence in Vietnam, has provided covert support to various civilian and militant Cham and Khmer organizations.

World Heritage Society

A largely informal society primarily made up of former UNESCO staff from the organization’s field offices in Manama, Apia, Venice, Havana, Jakarta, and New York City. The ranks of the World Heritage Society are also joined by a handful of anthropology and history enthusiasts. The goal of the World Heritage Society is to preserve and protect what remains of the world’s cultural and historical heritage, especially in light of the disappearance of humanity’s legacy on the continental mainlands. Until recently, the World Heritage Society has worked independently without the support of any of the world’s national governments. However, the organization has recently begun to receive financial and logistical support from a growing number of countries: the United Kingdom has leased an office in London to serve as the organization’s headquarters, the United States and Japan have both granted free passage to World Heritage Society workers looking to document cultural heritage sites in their territories, and Indonesia has agreed to provide a financial stipend to the Society’s executive bodies. Some of the Society’s projects include:

• Seven Wonders of the Insular World: A list of seven man made sites from the world’s surviving island communities. The purpose of this designation is twofold. First, it was created to encourage people to appreciate the cultural and historical heritage sites that had survived the Vanishing, calling on them to recognize that not all of humanity’s legacy was lost with the continental mainland. Second, it was created to encourage local bodies and governments to take steps towards protecting these remaining heritage sites. The Seven Wonders of the Insular World are as follows:

1. Banaue Rice Terraces (Philippines)
2. Borobudur (Indonesia)
3. Citadelle Laferrière (Haiti)
4. Himeji Castle (Japan)
5. Moai Statues (Easter Island / Rapa Nui)
6. Statue of Liberty (USPG)
7. Stonehenge (United Kingdom)

• Continental Heritage Archives: With the loss of communities and manmade structures in the continental mainland, the World Heritage Society created the Continental Heritage Archives in a bid to preserve the intangible cultural heritages (practices, expressions of culture, and traditions) unique to the peoples of the continental mainland. To this end, the World Heritage Society worked from existing records and surviving members of a society’s diaspora to preserve as much of the continental mainland’s culture as possible. In some instances, the World Heritage Society has also sought to preserve or revive lost expressions of mainland cultural heritage in the world post-Vanishing. Examples of this include:

• Efforts to keep the Mongolian language, and other Mongolian cultural practices and traditions, alive among the Mongolian diaspora in Japan. A unique blend of Japanese-Mongolian syncretism emerges in the form of Japanese slang entering the Mongolian lexicon, the emergence of a modified form of sumo wrestling incorporating some rules from Mongolian wrestling, and the emergence of a form of fusion Mongolian-Japanese cuisine which incorporates mutton in traditional Japanese recipes.
• Efforts to maintain the traditional practices and meanings associated with the preparation and consumption of ceviche within the Peruvian diaspora of the Canary Islands. Due to the sheer distance between the Canary Islands and Peru, exacerbated by the disappearance of the Panama Canal, coupled with the lack of continuity in the pre-Vanishing Peruvian society, the Peruvian diaspora in the Canary Islands has expressed little desire to return to their homeland.

Yankeedom

The informal name for a Japanese penal colony established in the northernmost portion of the recently-conquered Kuril Islands. The creation of Yankeedom can be traced to the short-lived Okinawa Rebellion . Some time after the Vanishing, tensions began to rise between the locals and American military personnel stationed on Okinawa Island. These tensions reached a boiling point following the introduction of emergency rationing laws, after which two local, Okinawan youths were shot and killed after attempting to steal rations from a supply depot at the Naha Port Facility. Amidst the resultant outcry, the Governor of Okinawa ordered all American military personnel on the island to disarm, and deployed the local police force to identify and detain the soldier suspected of shooting the two youths. When the garrison at Naha Port Facility refused to hand over the suspected shooter, a fire fight broke out in which several Japanese police officers and American military personnel were killed. This incident devolved into a quick, but brutal, series of clashes which soon spread throughout the entire island, resulting in the ousting or detainment of local authorities and the establishment of an American military junta over Okinawa. When news of the coup d’etat reached the Japanese mainland, several regiments of the Japan Self-Defense Forces were deployed to quell the situation. After a several-week-long confrontation between the American military junta and the Japan Self-Defense Forces, which was finally toppled from within by an uprising of disgruntled Army officers, Japanese authority is reinstated over the islands. With the bloodshed of the Okinawa Rebellion stoking fears of further insurgency by American military personnel elsewhere in Japan, the Japanese Government issued an ultimatum: within 48 hours, all American military personnel were to disarm, vacate their military installations, and surrender all military hardware and infrastructure to Japanese authorities. Chaos ensued. At several installations, the American military personnel hunkered down and clashed against the Japan Self-Defense Forces that came to evict them. At other installations, boats and aircraft carrying thousands of American military personnel, dependents, and civilian workers (as well as whatever supplies, hardware, and documents they could carry) hastily departed before they could be blocked by Japanese forces. Much of the American Flight fled to safe harbors in the Philippines, the Marianas, the Marshall Islands, or even as far as Hawaii. Those who had peacefully disarmed and presented themselves to Japanese authorities within the 48-hour-window were presented with the options of either staying in Japan (with some being offered pathways to eventual permanent residency) or being granted safe passage to any territory of their choosing. The approximately 10,000 American military personnel, dependents, or civilian workers who failed to present themselves to Japanese authorities, or were caught attempting to flee the country, were eventually apprehended and rounded up. At the time, Japan had recently conquered the Kuril Islands, and was in the process expelling much of the islands’ Russian population to Sakhalin and resettling the islands with Japanese citizens. The Japanese Government opted to designate Paramushir, which had recently been depopulated of Russian inhabitants, as the site of a penal colony for the American prisoners. Initially, just 3000 of the American prisoners were transferred to the islands, specifically to the site of the former village of Severo-Kurilsk (renamed Butler). The penal colony is supplied with scant supplies, and the conditions prove to be grueling, but the prisoners persist and adapt to the local environment. The remaining prisoners are gradually transferred to Paramushir and the other surrounding islands, resulting in the creation of small villages such as Buckner (built on the former settlement of Baikovo), Schwab, Kinser, McTureous, and Shields.

Zhaoshangju Corridor

A loose confederation of island city-states formed from the remnants of the People’s Republic of China. Following the sudden disappearance of the national leadership in Beijing, many of the surviving cities and island communities along China’s coast fell under the leadership of local authorities. In some cases, these surviving communities essentially became the personal fiefdoms of local warlords (e.g. Daxie Island - which was essentially ruled over by the island’s naval base), some remained in the control of local government bodies of the PRC (e.g. Hainan), and others deferred to the leadership of local community leaders (e.g. Hong Kong). In the direct aftermath of the Vanishing, many of the island communities struggled to cope with massive unrest, and their governments were left with not nearly enough resources and too many mouths to feed. Famine became widespread. Tens of thousands of people were sent, either voluntarily or by force, to establish farming, hunting, and foraging communities on the Chinese mainland - however, without sufficient tools or supplies, it was estimated that 1 in 25 people sent to the Settlement Zones died of starvation, disease, or suicide alone. Looting and piracy also became common, especially among rogue elements of the former People's Liberation Army Navy. The Zhaoshangju Corridor began as a loose alliance between the surviving communities of the Pearl River Delta, which banded together to defend against pirates, to trade much needed supplies and resources, share information, and restore damaged infrastructure. The alliance soon coalesced and grew to encompass other remnants of the PRC, spanning from Hainan (breadbasket of the corridor) to the Changshan Islands (the living seafood market). As the Zhaoshangju Corridor grew, so did the scope of its responsibilities - the communities of the Corridor began to collaborate in the planning and establishment of Settlement Zones (equipping settlers with better tools and logistical support, radically increasing their survival rate), formed a united trading bloc against third parties, oversaw shared command over a joint naval fleet, and drafted joint defense agreements against Japan and the Philippines. Eventually, the Corridor grew to encompass communities that were not initially part of the PRC, including Taiwan, Jeju, and the Cat Ba Archipelago. Abroad, the Corridor would be nicknamed the “Asian Hanseatic League”.

Zion

A fringe group of Mormons, primarily from the surviving remnants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New York City saw the sudden erasure of Mormon structures and institutions from mainland America as a prophetic sign. This group quickly noted that Beaver Island, the site of James Strang’s short-lived Mormon theocratic kingdom, was untouched by whatever mysterious force resulted in the disappearance of the mainland. This fringe group of Mormons viewed this as a sign that James Strang was the true successor to Joseph Smith, leading to the resurgence of a Strangite sect of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Within this sect, theologians and historians spilled over the doctrines and teachings of James Strang to piece together what they viewed to be the ‘true’ form of Mormonism. Several hundred Strangites made the pilgrimage to Beaver Island, forming the theocratic Kingdom of Zion under the leadership of one of Strang’s descendants. As the Strangites consolidated their hold over the island, the non-Mormon gentiles were expelled to the mainland. Some of the banished residents of Beaver Island managed to make their way to the surviving community of Mackinac Island, with many of the others succumbing to the elements on the banks of Lake Michigan.