Sunday, December 19, 2004

The Grove (2250-2350 A.D.)

While the Settlers from The Grove who left for the Hills and Patonga experienced a slight cultural shift under the influence of those regions few remaining elders, It had little influence on their overall outlook - still greatly Anti-Federation, concerned principally with the arts of permaculture, and the security of the food supply that permaculture produced. To this end, The only way to reach The Grove was by boat, or through the thick bush that the CPT had maintained for a century, to encourage bush life, hunted for meat and skins. The arts of the Rural Fire Service had kept any bushfire from seriously threatening food production, and a surplus had been maintained since the Tasmanian had arrived, and permaculture established.

The isolation of the Grove, separated from the world as it was by water and the bush of the Hawksbury Hills, belied the awareness of it's citizens. The young who had travelled the continent to find themselves and become adults had brought back much technology, and this included information tools. The Tidal Wave that had devastated the East Coast of Australia had occured throughout the pacific, drowning half of China's population in one fell swoop, as well as taking out the bastion of liberal thought in the US, namely California. the Original States had secessioned from the wider United States, joining with Quebec as it succeeded in secession away from Canada. Independent City States had risen from the ashes of California, and they had prospered.

The Bible Belt (Briefly the Re-Confederated States of America, 2015-2023) that could have crushed the growth in power from these liberals, only much of the population commited mass cult-like suicide in anticipation of Armageddon. With two centuries passed, there was little doubt that if Armageddon was to come, it hadn't come then, though the survivors still held out for their saviour to save them. with that massive, well, extinction is really the best word to describe it, religion fell out of Fervour as it was in the US. Other events around the world only encouraged the decline in this outmoded belief system - The Catholic Church had condemmed their followers to the agonising death of AIDS, leaving few alive as it spread throughout the Third World, and The Fundamentalist Reversion shortly after the Wave caused a great hemorraging of followers. The State of Israel and the United Islamic States pretty much wiped out the people of both books, in the Nuclear Exchange that wiped out Mecca and Jersusalem, though astonishingly Mohammad's Mosque in the centre of Mecca survived the Blast, The Hajj could only be completed by the elderly, as the fallout was sufficent to condemn any visitors to death by radiation.

The Effects, such as they were, on The Grove, was to leave a world that had little concern with the going ons of the sparsely populated continent of Australasia, and so The Federation had no international backing in taking over the small independent city-states by force, and while many had succumbed to the temptations of capitalism and the crumbling religions, The Groveans remained independent in language and mindset, and life was fairly stable in the region, with passing trade, slow cultural development, and a few dissenters who left for the Federation replaced by traders who decided to stay. However, with the First Man on Mars in 2342, there were to be developments that affected The Grove into the next century...
posted by Keegan at 1:33 pm

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