Plain Sense

 There's a certain irony that Russia, and in some respects Ukraine, is known for being cold, inland, and full of plains territory, is considered so foreign as to not truly be Western in the way European countries often are, has a topography not unlike the Rust Belt, which is often considered as American as American. This especially rings true in the New Middle Ages, with the frontier of the so-called "civilized world" falling back.

So it looks to wisdom to consider life in much of Medieval America just as similar to the that of Medieval Russia, as the countries like England or German which influenced the populace on a more cultural level. Harsher winter probably create a harsher people, but it's also quite possible folks in the Great Lakes bathe much more than many other denizens in the continent, due to the access to timber. 

In some respects, that denizens of the area come from generations that often experienced the hardest economic depressions created a frugal, cynical people, and the reversion to medievalism did not help matters. Russians in olden times often believed in something a zero sum game to a downright mystical level, and that probably hangs over the denizens of Michigan, West Virginia, and Upstate New York. 

Also, while the Orthodox faith has not as huge a impact as other denominations, the Non-Denominational Church very likely looked to to its structure for emulation, as opposed to the top-down Papacies, or the decentralized Protestant faiths.

That the Mississippi and Ohio and Great Lakes probably resemble the Russia of the Middle Ages more than the English Channel or Mediterranean also  means there's a good chance some of some inevitable parallels.

For the latter half of the 20th Century, the Unites States of the Soviet Union represented opposing poles on the political access, each trying to define itself what the other isn't. But there is no capitalism or communism in a pre-Industrial world, and in this new world, they might not be so different. Who knows how much closer America may come if having to start over from the same place as its rival.

The Global South

 In order to hew close to the general spirit of "In much of the world, the new Middle Ages was a rerun of the old Middle Ages.", to establish America as unique, one has to sort of think about what it means. Europe, and to a certain extent, Japan fit into our ideas of a feudal society. The Muslim world of the time does not 100 percent correspond with our ideas of "medieval", but there was a medieval world it regularly interacted it. It's easy to imagine China as a distinct 1000-1500 version itself. But there are many places it's probably harder, even with this very far-fetched scenario, to set the clock back with.

I've before mentioned something akin to a grace period. That is "the rules" allow, with certain discretion, more elements that existed up to 1600. This would largely be regarded with perhaps a post-Byzantine Anatolia, or Latin America, where Mexico to Peru would be a society probably not too dissimilar to the post-Columbian world, but still recognizably medieval. But besides the former United States, many parts of the world can't simply be rerun. This is the global south.

Australia and New Zealand have been as thoroughly remade in the image of colonials as the United States, and even if, isolated from the sphere of its Anglican cousins, it begins to absorb the demographics and cultures of its geographic neighbors, it would still be very, irrevocably different from an Australia of the pre-1600's. Said isolation, and that suitable farming would make a very small sliver would mean any sort of agrarian medieval type societies would not be considerably large--the population would most likely tap out at three million, and New Zealand maybe just as much. In short it, would be radically different, but perhaps not really noticed by much of the world.

South America is always a tricky thing to think about resetting. Once again, the idea is it could split the difference between the Pre-Columbian and early Colonial society for much of the continent. The interior, particularly the Amazon Basin, could very likely be seen as reclaimed by the indigenous tribes. There's also very likely a chance Brazil, one of the major nations of the world today, gets hit hard by escarpment. That is, the very fertile highlands, and the easily traversed coasts, are so stratified by the cliffs without industrial intervention, that it's very hard to form larger and complex kingdoms. A lot of sustenance farming villages on the interior, a few trading ports on the beaches. But where we'll probably see the U.S. challenged in "New Middles Ages' by scope is the Southern Cone, which is by far the most Europeanized, has some of the best farmland and rivers, and is definitely in a place where it pursue its own destiny, even away from most of Catholic Latin America. Probably something like twenty million people live in a "whole new experience".

South Africa is perhaps the continent's nation that has been most touched by colonialism, but demographic displacement has also been considerably smaller than Australia or America. Those of European descent make up approximately 10%, and could easily be absorbed or ousted. However, a westernized cultural memory, and a relatively temperate climate, and strategic maritime locations could lean itself to denser and more urbanized populations than that area saw in the "original" middle ages. 

The Mothman Cometh

The Snowbird Circuit

 Conventional wisdom is that the average medieval commoner did not travel very far in their lifetime. While it would certainly not be unusual for someone to have never seen more than fifteen miles outside their home village, there was quite a few means for travel, and a lot of incentive to do so, as Medieval Americans could see a wide variety of climate--harsh, snowy summers in the north and humid, steaming summers in the south. With little in the way of oil or air conditioners to mitigate that. For those who could manage, there  are a few ways to get around that.

Entertainment: As mentioned before, members of the noble class tend to hold tournaments. The season starts at roughly the end of a Harvest season, where people have time to watch it, and the circuit will sort of outrun the cold, until the last championships somewhere around January, usually called the Super Bowl. With them follow the smiths, merchants, prostitutes, and just about any industry that would pop up when a city of tournament tents takes root. This is also sometimes the plan for travelling entertainers, though some seek to swim upstream, knowing that castles and communities that are cooped up and bored during the winter might be more welcoming to someone who's wares are song and cheer. 

Pilgrimage: Pilgrimages were common in the Middle Ages, usually to visit the most prestigious monasteries, and during the core of the Middle Ages, it was imperative to visit the Holy Land. Americans certainly recognize the significance of the Holy Land, but are extremely unlikely to ever see it, so they hold pilgrimages to places significant to the American Church. In the warmer months they include Plymouth and  Rhode Island, (Near Cape Cod and Newport, very popular destinations to cool off in the Industrial Age) to Philadelphia (where the Declaration was signed)  to Washington D.C. (the capital of the Non-Denom world) to Jacksonville (Near St. Augustine, the first place in America to be colonized.) Fairly convenient, really. 

Warfare: One can always just embark on a military career--this being a Medieval society--there aren't a lot of standing armies in Medieval America, but compared to Europe, there are a lot of mercenary bands. The Northern states do not like to engage in warfare in the winter months, when fights are still going on a relatively short distance away, so the mercenary industry is able to keep busy fairly often. But even outside of the threat of being slain in battle, it's generally not as smooth as the pilgrimage of the Eastern seaboards, who are very much invested in keeping their path of providence from turning into a war zone. Still, some are more inclined, or just better, and taking the plundering and pillaging path to getting a little sun, than quiet contemplation in a monastery. 

Christmas Greens

 The mystic nature of the evergreen predates Christmas itself, back to when it was the more pagan Solstice of Yule holidays. In the late Middle ages, one did not decorate at the end of November, but very soon before Christmas itself, maintaining that the celebration from Christmas to Epiphany was the big deal. They used natural greens to decorate. The Non-Denominational Church considers both Thanksgiving and New Years holy days, so celebrating past January is not done much. 

Just about everyone in Medieval America celebrates Christmas in one manner or another (Or some kind of holiday that means "Christmas", the scientologists just call it "Holiday" in their language), but that wide climactic differences mean they decorate a little differently from place to place. Luckily, the conifer is widespread throughout the entire country. Fir trees in the north, junipers and Virginia pines in the south. Evergreens don't quite have the same profound meaning in the warmer climates of the south--many prefer to be festive with paper lanterns, which are quite popular there, but one can't help but implement the iconic magnolia plant into their greenery.

Mormon culture makes ascetic elegance a priority, but their winters can be surprisingly rough, and they do have proximity to pines, even blue spruces, so they decorating their churches and town squares do provide a much needed boost of morale for a sometimes tough life. They've actually doubled down on elaborate decorations since their liberation from the Yaegars.

The nomads of the great plains are usually not one for decoration or even symbols--they might find most our modern decking of the halls absurdly decadent, even idolatrous. But they are descended from Americans who consider themselves the most traditional Americans, and the funny thing is, the Yuletide season is the time of year they're the most stationary. They want to be as closes to wooded areas as possible, and in the mountains of the west, that usually does mean pie trees and other conifers. Thus, they hold evergreens as symbolically important as their cattle, and okay, they're in camp, so maybe they can string up their wagons and have a communal Christmas tree. They're not at all sentimental about eventually burning it with everything else.

Met Masquerade Galas

 As the New Middle Ages is an inherent anachronism, it is filled with "old timey" things that were on the cusp of the Early Modern Period, but are common in Neo-Medievalism, because they sort of bridge that gap between old and new, with people not fully grasping which is either. Something akin to a cultural mobius strip.

Masquerades are quite common in Medieval America, at least among the wealthy, urban populations, which is admittedly not a lot. A catch-all theme is spooky, or mythical figures. But it also very common, even for Halloween, to have very specific themes, which evolved from the Met Galas, which happened in September, and seemed to grow in popularity--they were practically a private affair pre-00's, and in many ways this has recursively become that way again in the 00's. Much in the way most Medieval American states sort of claim to be the "true" successor the United States, as the rich and famous could no longer travel to new York City, and in fact, New York City itself was hyperdecimated, cities across America--Cincinnati, New Orleans, Sacramento and Seattle, all declared themselves to be the homes to the Official New Meta Gala.

The Gala had a  relative proximity to Halloween, and as festivals in the New Middle Ages tried to affix themselves less to exact dates, than floating periods that worked to be whatever times was most doable, once or twice the two celebrations crossed paths and it didn't take quite long for a major conflation, and a great deal of Halloween Parties and Met Galas are the same thing.

The Met Masquerade, as mentioned above, definitely try conform to an overall theme, especially as embracing outright macabre costumes tend to fall in and out of style. Sometimes they're odes to Classical Mythology (Figures that have been around for thousands of years will surely stick in collective memory for another thousand.) Sometimes they're animal themes. Sometimes they're takes on other nations, particularly ones further away. Those takes are not particularly accurate, as communication is low and probably so is cultural sensitivity.

Costume prizes are handed out of course. Unlike knights, there's probably not an extensive enough masquerade circuit. As it is, the nature of these costumes require a good deal of resources to make, so prizes just barely make the rich get richer, but many times being the modern equivalent to a cosplay champion is a real money sink.

Justice Brown Mysteries

September in the Industrial Age marked the start of the Fall TV season. One often joked about the overdone premise of police, doctor, and lawyer shows. Towards the end, one could say LAW & ORDER, CSI and NCIS were consolidations of those premises. The popularity of multiple Sherlock Holmes shows also drew on the cop/doctor combination. And of course there's popular subgenre of priest detective shows. How does this relate to Medieval America? 

The heart of the Non-Denominational Church, and the United State of America, are found in the Mid-Atlantic, formerly the most urbanized place on Medieval America, and one which tries to hardest to maintain the continuity of infrastructure of the Industrial Era. Courtrooms and hospitals are much more likely to be found under the umbrella of the Non-Denom Church, and as such clerics, physicians, lawyers and even some detectives are considered colleagues to a certain degree. And there are probably even the occasional polymath, who engages in various practices Umberto Eco's In the Name of the Rose, crossed with our image of the Founding Fathers is probably an approximation of what such a person might be.

In some ways, that doctors, justices and priests and priests are part of the same group allows a much smoother engine than that found in some of the more decentralized feudal kingdoms, but it does take away some checks and balances that results in corruption. Conflicts of interest, and maybe even the occasional conspiracy would form. If a legal, medical, and theological expert all agree that a parcel of land is best suited to a particular purpose, who's going to argue?

As for the concept of the Non-Denominational Detective--those are probably fairly rare. Murder and theft usually falls under the realm of secular leaders, and many aristocrats, particularly warlords, do not care about the fates of peasants or sex workers. They barely lift a finger over livestock theft, and are quick to round up and execute the usual suspects to make an example. But members of the Church are amongst the most learned of the Medieval World, and they are often consulted. And if a commoner can scrape enough silver, or make a moving emotional plea, maybe a cleric might be bothered to look into a crime. After all, their brains have been wired to as questions and look for answers. And what better way to get converts than be the ones to provide something rare in these times--justice?