Lakes

The Great Lakes operate as a their own de facto sea. In fact, throughout America, it's often referred to as "the fourth coast", or the "drinking sea", or the "glass sea", due to the icing over at wintertime, and the light skin of its inhabitants. The Lake states are on good terms with each other largely due to the mutual partnerships influenced by the merchants of the shoreside cities like Buffalo, Chicago and Detroit. Winters are too harsh and enemies to fierce to want to throw away their advantage on war.

The premiere power is Michigan. It has the highest population, and it stands as the major water-gateway from east to west. As something of a peninsula, it overseas trade from Canada to much of the west. Its sister nation Wisconsin has claimed the the vestigial rump of Minnesota, where it now sits at the top (and much easier traveling point) of the Mississippi river.

The counties of the east are frequently embroiled in bitter warfare with New York, as they jealously yearn for eerie canal that connects the lakes to the Atlantic. Allegheny is currently the most powerful, with its all-but ownership of Lake Eerie, and the city of Pittsburgh at the mouth of the very busy Ohio River. The tough conditions and access to resources have made the Alleghenyians renown metalsmiths, and few wish to take its knights class head-on.

Though never part of the "United States" empire, Ontario has blended in with the rest of the Lakes culture it participates with, and as a result has largely "Americanized", or at least "Midwesternized". It even established a Non-Denom church in its capital of Toronto, in order to connect better with its southern neighbors. However, Canadian folk tradition still permeates from the rustics of Ocean Sound.

• System of Government: Feudalism
  • Head of State:
    • Michigan: President,chosen by and from the warriors of the ruling Bauer family
    • Allegheny: Count, chosen by and from the warriors of the ruling Strater family
    • Ontario: Governor, chosen by and from the warriors of the ruling Campbell family
    
    
• Population:
  • Michigan: 2,500,000
  • Allegheny: 1,230,000
  • Ontario: 740,000
  
  
• Religion: Non-Denominational

New Jersey

Much of the Northeast tends to run by Republics; Either Merchant City States, territories administrated by the Church, or just a few peasant towns making their way in the world, New Jersey is a feudal state. New Jersey is one of a few feudal kingdoms found between Chesapeake Bay and Long Island Sound. The Pine Barrens have largely kept them off the coast, where the concentrate on the fertile fields within. Jersey is perhaps the most prominent due to the more fertile inland, and the Delaware River, one of the highways that connects the Northeast and Midwest.

This also owes largely to the presence of the Families. In some ways, they're different from the knights found in the heartland, as the warlords are not mounted knights for the most part, but hold pikemen armies. Their origins are a little different as well. the New Jersey warlords are a class that used to be a lower class, often underworld and secretive in their wars. But the tactics were essentially the same as the other warlords: Intimidation of the peasants, blood ties and a very organized hierarchy. In fact, the Non-Denominational Church found them to actually be more reasonable and easier to neogitate with than the petty knights throwing their weight around. It was just a matter of finding a family who was on the same page as them, faith-wise, since most of the families still practiced Catholicism.

One of the more respected clans was the Giaccino family. The Giaccino has aspirations of royalty, and were on relatively good trading terms with the United States. Also, Don Michael Giaccino really saw little point in sticking to a Church who's influence in the region was disappearing by the generation. The Giaccinos had eventually converted to Non-Denom, gaining the Church's blessing and allies from surrounding areas. Wiping out rivals like Martones and the Demasias, the Giaccino family was now out in the open and legitimate.

• System of Government: Feudalism
  • Head of State:
    • Don, chosen by the head of the ruling Giaccino family
• Population: 1,200,000
• Religion: Non-Denominational
  • Totemic Symbol: Bald Eagle
• Map