KENTUCKY FREE STATE—
A freehold comprising much of the old United State of Kentucky, minus much of the Bluegrass, some parts of the Jackson Purchase, and the area around Louisville and with the addition of Evansville, the small industrial city in southwestern Indiana and some of the more mountainous sections of northeastern Tennessee. Previously it was quiet, neutral territory where the legworm ranchers feuded with each other more than the Kurian Order. Thanks to the heavy-handed actions of the Moondaggers in pursuit of Southern Command’s formations in 2075-76, the Kentucky revolt broke out and resulted in the formation of the Army of Kentucky. It, with the support of a single Southern Command brigade in the western half of the state, established the first new freehold east of the Mississippi in decades.
KURIAN ZONE (or just “The Zone”)—
There are many different flavors of Kurian Zones, but they all have a few things in common. The remote Kurian Lord and his Reaper avatars are at the top of a pyramid of power. Below them are a few trusted Quislings and the New Universal Church high officials directing a slightly larger middle layer of functionaries and police. Kurian Zones tend to have only small groups of well-armed soldiers, relying on club-wielding police, mercenaries, and special traveling military cadres like the Moondaggers to protect themselves.
MIDSOUTH ZONE—
A weaker Kurian Zone comprising Memphis on the Mississippi and Nashville and the areas in between. It is considered an ally of the Georgia Control, maintaining its independence by providing military assistance to the Georgia directors now and then.
NOMANSLAND—
Any area not part of a Kurian Zone or a freehold is generally considered Nomansland. This can include stretches of useless, postapocalyptic wasteland inhabited only by a few bandits or dangerous Grogs to the bigger Grog lands of Saint Louis and the northern half of Missouri. Frequently, head-hunter gangs roam across Nomansland areas, looking for runaways from the Kurian Zone to return for bounty or sell to the highest bidder.
One mistake the unwary make in venturing into Nomansland is assuming that there is little chance of meeting a Reaper. Kurians who wind up on the losing end of a power struggle or are ambitious offspring of a powerful Kurian can sometimes be found in Nomansland zones, trying to incorporate that region into the Kurian Order or simply hiding out from powerful enemies.
NORTHWEST ORDNANCE—
A collection of old rust-belt states around the Great Lakes, excluding Chicago and Wisconsin and including some bits of Southern Ontario. The Northwest Ordnance is viewed by the rest of the Kurian Order as something of a “sick man of North America” and jealous eyes are watching it from all directions, waiting for it to fall so that its more valuable parts and populations might be divided up.
SOUTHERN COMMAND—
Not so much a geographic region as a military command and operational zone, Southern Command was one of the first networks of military resistance formed after the Kurian Invasion in 2022, and in pure manpower is the largest. It maintains contact with other freeholds and formerly cooperated with them when possible, but after several disasters and reverses in the last few years it has adopted a “defensive stance,” concentrating on better defending the United Free Republics against Reaper and Grog incursions and training.
UNITED FREE REPUBLICS—
Once considered one of the bright spots of North America, the UFR has retreated into a well-guarded neutrality. The United Free Republics had a tumultuous birth, when the collapse of Consul Solon’s Transmississippi, which had overthrown the Ozark Free Territory, caused a ripple effect in the surrounding Kurian Zones, especially in Texas. After ridding themselves of Consul Solon through a mixture of luck and planning, the Ozark Forces plunged into Texas and Eastern Oklahoma in response to uprisings there, managed to surround and then occupy Dallas, and plunged south into parts of the Rio Grande Valley. Shortly thereafter the United Free Republics were formed, somewhat along the lines of the old states of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Texas. Military reversals led to new elected leadership and a new direction for UFR’s military arm, Southern Command, but most believe it is only a matter of time before the UFR manages to link up with freehold in Colorado and the newly organized rebels in Kentucky.
BOOLS BY E. E. KNIGHT
The Age of Fire Series
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Way of the Wolf
Choice of the Cat
Tale of the Thunderbolt
Valentine’s Rising
Valentine’s Exile
Valentine’s Resolve
Fall with Honor
Winter Duty