The Desert

The Desert is a pretty vast region of Medieval America. And to both our 21st century Americans, and even Medieval Americans of the East, it may be the most bizarre. Encompassing much of the southwest, these people have been isolated from much of the rest of the world, and have had to adapt to adapt and forsake a culture that could only be maintained through modern machines. The most distinct thing about denizens here, from what we can tell so far, is that they have wildly different religions. Religion seems to be the best way to divide the three nations, if not states up. When White mentions peoples west of the Rockies, he seems to emphasize the religion. Some places, like Colorado and Nevada look to have three religions within their former borders, but that might not be a case of friction so much as petering out. In fact, Nevada itself seems to withered away, with no tourism industry, or technology to divert the rivers. The settlements of the desert may have suffered the most traumatic transition into this era, as the southwest is home to many bustling and growing cities, with the relative lack of resources to support it. It's said these places might never have attracted people in the first place if air conditioning wasn't invented. The climb back to the top must have been harsh, maybe even gruesome at times, but now we're witness to the colorful societies that have been forged. The lifestyle icon is a water pump denoting "irrigation". White has dropped reference to the fact farmers need to irrigate their land, building canals from rivers to farms in order to grow crops. The sunlight and lack of parasites make up for the shallow soils, but agriculture remains intensive. Civilizations pretty much appear on the river banks and nations are long, narrow bends and arcs. It's likely that not only do the rivers serve as the bases for farming, but also transport and fleets. This is another reason hydraulic empires are able to thrive with absolute authority. Cities are very condensed and consolidated. White doesn't have any pictures, even in the archive, of what people in the desert look like, but it wouldn't be too hard to speculate. It is very likely there's a mix and match between the cowboys and the southern farmers, with some veering to one end of the scale depending on the warmth of the area. In general, this should be considered less of a Sahara-type desert that evokes giant blistering sand dunes, but one where cold is much of a threat as heat. Ice may also be feasible for the wealthy to access, which could affect society in several ways. Most of the population of Mexico is found in the more forested, south, and the "border towns" of the desert are now firmly nomadic. In my opinion, this means that the territory is relatively up for grabs. Why would a nation want this area? Well, I think they would want the area around the Baja peninsula. Trade with South America probably shapes the mobility and initiative of the north, and the Gulf of California would make an excellent trade route without having to traverse the inland deserts. The main problem is how arid Death Valley is. These would not be great sources of agriculture for the region--they would be trade cities, plain and simple. A breakdown in trade, or a wane in demand for the goods would see such cities wither and die.

White has actually given two of the three desert kingdoms their own pages, leaving only New Mexico mystery.  The territory has extended into Arizona, and even some of Texas. The desert shepherds and goatherds may play a very large role in New Mexico. The husbandry map combined with the West Map shows that within New Mexico's borders, we see quite a few nomadic tribes. They may even make up half the population. This is kind of fitting as New Mexico and Arizona have always been more "Wild West" than the other desert states, and still boast a few ranches. Most are probably shepherds and goatherds, but it might be possible there are cattlers here and there. Another interesting thing is that the major cities seem to mostly be in the eastern half of the nation. However, there are settlements on the Gila river. I wonder if they're more spread out, and most resemble the old Native American cultures which have likely blurred over history. The religion map says "New Age", and I'm not sure what that is, or why primarily Catholic New Mexico would be practicing that. It's possible that, with the sun belt's collapse, people were looking for drastic new answers. The religions of the modern westerns world come mostly from the desert (The same desert, in fact), so it probably makes sense that if anything dramatically different were to pop up, here would be the place. And it would probably take just one eccentric autocrat to impose his new faith one everybody.

Speaking of which, while White has talked about Deseret and California specifically, he hasn't really gotten into their respective faiths. I'll get into them on the religions page, but both are real world religions, and considered by some to be especially peculiar. The Church of Latter Days Saints established a foothold in the settler days, and today Utah and its surrounding areas are very strongly and uniquely Mormon country. In addition to its demographics, isolation, and that harder times are Churchy times, that Mormons tend to have survivalist leanings makes its endurance into Medieval America all the more logical. Probably the biggest contributors to Hurricane Katrina relief were Mormon organizations. The Church of Scientology's prominence is a little more of a headscratcher. There are not any adherents, (and in the days since White first created it site, it has suffered P.R. disaster after disaster.) This maybe trying to take the stereotype of the Los Angeles airhead to its logical conclusion, and that it's the religion most associated with movie stars may mean a sort of sci-fi, movie inspired religious doctrine. I would bet Emperors often claim they're made into stars upon death--and local astronomers are bribed to name stars after their recently departed rulers.

The "desert" graphic has horse archery as the prime mode of combat but from all appearances Desert and California have their share of heavy cavalry. Because there's no "knightly" class in the Hydraulic Empires, and it appears the armies must be celibate, and because their general is also their spiritual leader, I've presumed that the warriors here operate much like the Knights Templar  (Who also got their start in the arid Crusader States), and considering the Church of Latter Days Saints calls their HQ a Temple, my own creative contribution to the Medieval American World is that "Templar" is a unique sort of class of celibate, desert-based lancers

The Plains

This is the area White seems to have spent the most time on, perhaps owing to the idea that when we think "America", we think "Cowboys". He gives us information on the lifestyle, religion and combat of the nomadic herdsmen. Two of the three nations he specifically talks about are ones significantly shaped by them, and which have a significant cowboy minority. The only one he left incomplete was the "Tribes" page, and to be honest, we know so much about how the herdsmen live from the other three pages there weren't a lot of gaps to fill.

It's probably best described as cowboys and Indians rolled into one, with a little bit of the Mongol empire, and maybe a dash of Viking. Some say White was inspired by the Horseclan novels, but the lifestyle does make sense. In many ways, it's just a reversion to the pre-industrial free-grazers, Oregon Trail-style settlers and natives, but with a little bit of a technology relapse, most notably the lack of guns.

The biggest unanswered question is the two "territories" shown on The West Map, dominated by the Rizzini clan, and the Anderson clan, respectively. It might be worth looking at tribes so powerful, they have a label, despite the herdsmen's distaste for settle nations. The Anderson have dominated central Texas, which makes you ask. Are they occupiers? Patriotic Texans? Is Texas considered more of a vague idea in this era? It's very interesting, because modern day Texans are the most dedicated to the idea of Texas as a nation unto itself.

The other tribe, Rizzinis certainly cut an imposing figure, and even have their own flag, which could be the skull of a deer, or the mythical Jackelope. They may conjure the idea of Hell's Angels bikers as much as they do cowboys.

The Gulf

The Gulf is one of the smaller sections of Medieval America, home to somewhere between three and five million people, but is certainly amongst the most unique. So unique, that it appears that it doesn't even have that many historical parallels in the way or Venice or Egypt. There are places in Southeast Asia where the climate is similar, but the combination of ethnicity, climate, and  geography make it something pretty unprecedented. Also of note, while the other sub-regions are partitioned off by stark geographical features like mountains and desert, meaning peoples and cultures tend to be cut off or peter out, the Heartland bleeds into the Gulf, and so where one ends and the other begins is almost a judgment call.

What really lets you know you are in this region the presence of Secretarial States, where women run the civil services, and the intricacies of the household. White has not created a page for real world religions, but the prominence of women in Louisiana Voodoo would certainly be copacetic with the woman-friendly society, and whether Voodoo has given rise to Secretarial States, or Secretarial State have given rise to Voodoo, may be a chicken/egg scenario. However, a sizeable portion still exist under the sway of the Non-Denominational Church, and indeed, a district HQ still exists in Florida. But considering this isn't a major war zone, it's probably fairly tolerant and it's probable the rest of the East views them as extremely exotic--maybe even a little sorcerous.

While part of the continental United States, it shares a lot more with the culture and ethnicity of the Caribbean islands. The people here are darker skinned, and less prone to wearing clothes, so in terms to the clock being turned back, imagine the Taino people.. They grow sugar and citrus fruits, and the port of New Orleans, which may be the biggest city on the continent, is also the fulcrum of channeling goods from South America.

The major gap in information.is warfare, but there are breadcrumbs. We know that typical heavy cavalry wages war on the panhandle (though what it must be like in humid weather leads you to wonder), but it definitely peters out as we get into Florida. In fact, Florida itself is an important touchstone in the conversation. In industrial America, it was the fourth most populated state, and home to many large cities. It appears the prevalence of swampland, hurricanes, and parasites has kept infrastructure fairly low, and what we have is probably lot of naval or guerilla warfare. Just a terrible place to build castles, really.

By contrast, Louisiana  is a little more hardcore, and is even a little expansionist, though not to the level of the United States. Still, that White linked it to its on the Littoral Regions page, and compared it to the Venetians and the Byzantines means that he definitely had plans to talk about it. 

The Lakes

Even though The Lakes is sub-region of the "Feudal Core", I decided to section it off into its own entry, for a couple of reasons. First, because makes up a significant portion of the Heartland in terms of population and autonomous kingdoms, with 8 million or so in the specifically highlighted areas, with another couple million living in Ohio, which is its own thing, similar to how France isn't always thought of as a Mediterranean country per se, but the southern borders do come into play when we talk about Mediterranean politics and culture. The people living in northern Ohio and Indiana might have more in common with foreigners on opposite borders than their own countrymen. As the Lakes make up something of an additional coast, , like the Gulf and the Atlantic Seaboard, and is the "end of the line" for America, and would thus develop quirks defined by its places at the fringe. 

The Great Lakes region is also something to examine because more than any other region in America, it so quickly industrialized and urbanized after settlement, and is often considered the most quintessentially American part. We can look at other areas of the country and harken back to things like southern plantations, the patroon system,  plains tribes--even the clan system of the Appalachians, we can picture as turning back the clock and/or looking at its old world equivalent. We have relatively little to guide us by way of precedent.

Michigan is the biggest dog of the Lakes, and in fact forms something of a "Big Three" with the aforementioned Ohio and Iowa. It's actually the smallest of the three by size and population, but its geography keeps it defensible and competitive. It's forsaken the upper portion, which now belongs to Wisconsin, but in turn has taken over lower Ontario, presumably so it can occupy Lake St. Clair as its own personal harbor. Like Ohio, it seems to have the dual-purpose "sword and scythe" approach, as it's both a breadbasket and a place for expert smiths, which probably means knights, knights, and more knights. It's probably Ohio's biggest rival.

Wisconsin is, culturally, the other state we think of as vintage "Lake-ish", a place of long winters, quirky politeness and dairy farms. (An identity also attribute to Minnesota, which has either had its edges bitten off by Wisconsin, or reverted to stateless tribalism) As mentioned above, the upper peninsular of Michigan now belongs to it, although in turn has seen some of its southern portion conquered by the Iowa hordes. Though "All-American", it is quite possibly the place in America that is the most like Medieval Europe, particularly Scandinavia.

To the left we have two kingdoms that today, would be part of Northeast/Mid-Atlantic states, but are now exploring their destinies in the Midwest. There's Allegheny and Genesee. The former seems to be a bit bigger, with a flag many would recognize as the logo for the Pittsburgh Steelers, but is the original sign for the American Steel Company. This polity probably considers themselves the last word in swordmaking. It's actually very interesting its major city is not on the Lakes itself, but as Pittsburgh is at adjunct of three rivers, so its riverine culture is probably not too distant from the semi-maritime culture. For its part, Genesee is home to Buffalo, the biggest city on the Lakes, and of the snow belt in general.

Finally, we have Ontario. Actually, the Ontario province has been cut up into several little pieces, until we get to Quebec, and it's quite possibly the Anglo-Franco divide is a little more gradual, to the point they don't get along. This is probably why Toronto is a headquarters for the Non-Denominational Church, even though though the Church is basically an outgrowth of the federal government. Perhaps Anglo Canada threw their lot in with non-Denoms to counter the expansion of the Quebecois. Still, this is probably the last bastion for Canadian identity as a concept. The other provinces have either been conquered by or merged with their U.S. counterparts across the parallel, or like Quebec and the Native-majority territories, drifted into their more distinct,  pre-Anglo, selves.