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Barsoomian Horizons

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Crossposting on the AH forum

A continuation of my original idea.

The normal world ended on New Years Day, 2016

The event took no logical idea, no path of reason the draconian physicals laws humans possessed allowed. The event would be called many things over the ages, The Great Transport, The Beckoning, God's Sneeze, but one name above else captures what humanity felt the day of the arrival- Utter Madness.

40 years after the event, the madness has long parted from its worse phase, but oddities and myriad wonders and horrors still light and blight humanity. The day of the event, 12 nations were transported to a planet, which initial satellite images showed to be a massive terraformed mars, although on closer inspection the only thing mars and this planet had in common were outward geography. What the first settlers encountered when they first braved the Barsoomian fields were aliens, though aliens beyond the wildest imaginations of man. Polyp divers, Vetshanks, Robulls, all myriad forms with more genetic diversity than earth ever possessed. This was not a normal planet. Scientific explanation was not ready deal with this. It would not be for a thousand years.

The world stabilized fairly quickly. Fifty years after the event, the new world of Barsoom was starting to reach what could be considered a status quo.

The West coast of the United States of America was transported to the western Tharsian plain, and arid region with coastal fields remarkably similar to California itself. Whatever creature started the event had a sense of irony. Faced with the impossible task of stabilizing in the face of millions of hungry, panicked people, the American provisional government showed remarkable resolve. Drawing from it's older expansionist heritage, and facing the vast alien plains that lied on all sides, a new manifest destiny was starting to emerge. This time, those of all races, creeds, and faith, were pushing the limits of the nation, under the Stars and Stripes, with a more cynical worldview developing due to the initial post-event chaos, California is not as liberal as one might expect. While the original provinces are still run by the democrats, in the outer "New Territories" the new Republicans dominate.

Perhaps the most hard hit nation directly after the event was Japan. Faced with isolation, severe lack of trades and imports, with the only nation close by, the USA, suffering from it's own problems, Japan was reeling under hunger, needing to face it's demons or fall into chaos. The Northern Russian island of Sakhalin had been transported with Japan as well, which had plenty of farms and agriculture. The US soldiers in Japan gave the Japanese army a strategic edge. With Sakhalin reeling under it's own problems, the island had no choice but to surrender. Quickly seizing agricultural outposts in Sakhalin and setting up farms on the continent of Elysium, Japan was finally feeding itself again. With the discovery that much of the Barsoomian life was edible to humans, Japan finally became self sufficient. 40 years post event, Japan is an expanding maritime power, heavily allied with the United States under a trade pact, it's settlers pushing into the heart of the Elysian jungle.

The most successful expander was China, it's capital and metropoles transported to the other side of Tharsis. Stripped of it's fertile countryside and the prosperous ports of Canton, it seemed as though China would die a slow death. Instead, the government lead it's people on great expansion outward, bringing the mandate of heaven with every land touched. The new china would bring peace and order to earth, expand the human frontier, and sail new seas of human experience. It is clearly traversing that boundary with more savvy than any other nation in Barsoom. It is, however showing signs of slowing, as the now settled population in cozy new towns start to embrace the new status quo.

While most governments changed very little after the event, the nation of Turkey was not so convinced that the old order of bureaucratic hypocrisy would survive. Instead, they overthrew the decadent secular regime, and once again established a nation shining in Allah's goodwill, this time on Barsoom. Despite being Islamist, the government is democratic and stabilizing, the last coup attempt being ten years ago. Turkish expansion is remarkably stable, growing steadily and carefully, the new provinces barely distinguishable from the old in terms of living standards. This does however, have the side effect of being very slow.

Denmark and Switzerland were Transported to the Nilo Coast, an area strewn with the most dangerous Barsoomian life. Faced with a wild, seemingly unconquerable frontier, these nations did the unthinkable- conquer that frontier. Trucks strewn with repeater guns now sprawl over the expansion zone, carrying settlers and shipments, killing dangerous Barsoomian lifeforms and clearing vast swaths of forest for safe settlement. As expansion technology gets more and more advanced, the Bern-Copenhagen axis is now hunkering down for a new great expansion.

India was rather lucky getting put in the Hellas Sea, one of the most fertile areas of Barsoom. It's vast populations and relatively well maintained southern infrastructure allowed it to colonize Hellas basin at an unprecedented speed. Now settler towns dot every part of the Hellas coast, each with it's own patron god, those who are to thank for bringing Bharat to the New World. The Settler towns are described as being more pleasant than India itself, as they were built on the modern model of wood and bricks in contrast to the heavy marble of mainland India. With the loss of the North, culture here has taken on an undeniably Dravidian flare, with Hindi being phased out a mere 5 years after the event as the lingua franca. At this point 80 percent of the population of India speaks English, even those not generally considered "educated". With India however, the Nations of Maldives and Sri Lanka were transported as well, now both in the Indian sphere, and rather content as so, being treated with respect, even though some politicians regard Bangalore with contempt.

Britain and Ireland were brought to Isidis bay, and found themselves in a situation that neither wanted to face- working together. With massive hurricanes wrecking the coast and an rising demand for food, the governments of the British isles were put in a tough spot. It was decided in a moment of cooperation that both nations would form an intermittent alliance to save both their nations. Celts and Englishmen alike were sent to to form colonies abroad and ship food, in which it would come back to Britain and Ireland in equal supply. Huge welfare bills and money grants were given to those who volunteered to leave the comfort of home and embark to the new colonies for the sake of their country. These men and women more or less saved the British Isles from a slow and painful decline. However, with the decrease in tension and the current self-sufficiency of both regimes, Celts and Englishmen may once again go their separate ways.

Hungary was a wild card. It had a rather low population, good infrastructure, and was fairly self sufficient, but it's location landlocked deep in the Isidis desert had not allowed it much contact with other nations beyond radio calls. It's location in a desert meant it's water supply was now limited to the draining Danube and a few lakes. Hungary was on bought time. It pleaded to Britain for support, but caught in it's own problems, it would not be able to ship water for another two years, simply too much time. Hungary then decided it would send settlers on a march to the northern coast, and gain water by itself. Great caravans of thousands of trucks carrying purification tanks drive far across the desert, and finally made it to the sea to extract water. The port of New Magyar now provides water to the whole nation.


The nations described above are not the only nations in Barsoom however. brought along in the event were other nationalities, now stripped of a homeland in need of rebuilding- or in the case of the Kurds, a homeland now ready to be built. The nations of Kurdistan, Neuva Mexico, and Novya Rossiya are now established in world geopolitics, if small and undeveloped. A few Muslims in India left Hellas Basin for the untamed frontiers of the north, now living in the nomadic fashion of their distant ancestors.

The nations of humanity are starting to recover, getting back on their feet, now looking to a new, Barsoomian horizon. Only time will tell were we will go from here.
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123456789JD's avatar
What are humanity's relations with other races on Barsoom?