Hey I'm new here and I was reading through the thread and I had an idea for survivors. Well its a bit of a stretch for the rules, since they wouldn’t make it to year 90, but I thought it’d be an interesting place to look at before it went completely silent. So without further ado, here’s the caribbean.
Just a warning but this post is very long, mostly because I can’t draw a good map and I might have gotten carried away.
The Shallow Sea and its People
USA: When the mainland fell to the rash the commander of Boca Chica Key was quick to knock down the bridges leading to Boca Chica Key and just as quick to sink incoming refugee ships. The majority of the population lived on Key West, while Boca Chica became a fortress against the eastern keys.
Though they were close to the mainland the soldiers managed to keep wandering creatures at bay and no giants came their way. A decade after the Collapse the commanders of Boca Key decided that they had stabilized and could start reclaiming the other keys with the final goal being the Turkey Point power plant.
The campaign turned into a disaster, and only their aircraft were able to keep the monsters from overrunning the entire force. After the loss of their army (and a large part of their population) the nation isolated itself from the world, slowly picked apart by monsters and raiders until the island went quiet. A few managed to escape to Dry Tortuga where they became part of the Carib League.
Carib League: After the rash hit its peak the majority of nations in and around the caribbean ceased to exist. Most people survived by jumping ship to smaller islands, Mexico to la Isla de Cozumel, Cuba to la Isla de la Juventud, Haití to Ile de la Gonave, ect. What arose in their place was the Carib League, a loose alliance of the survivors who made contact to one another.They set a ‘capital’ on the Isla de Cozumel and tried to fortify inhabited islands as best they could. But the Caribbean's calm and warm water proved to do little to slow the monsters and one by one the islands were abandoned, even their capital was moved twice before it was set on a ship. By year thirty the majority of people lived nomadic lives, sailing from one island to another and foraging/scavenging as they went.
Many became a scourge on the seas, seeing raiding inhabited islands and ships as preferable to fighting monsters for scraps. They also sent many scavengers to pick through the ruins, though they only dared to set foot on the mainland when an arctic wind blows southward.
Republic of Bermuda: The last country that survived the rash intact, it became the unofficial capital of the Shallow Sea. After the US’s complete collapse it became the official capital of the world in year thirty five. A combination of luck and distance from the main land kept the island safe from the initial outbreak, and the small fleet of coast guard cutters it managed to gather helped keep the occasional attacks (be they human or monster) at bay. The nation relied heavily on oil from the rigs in the Gulf of Mexico for both fuel and power, and sent ‘rig runs’ to collect oil.
The nation survived until year fifty three, when a rig run led a leviathan to the island. During the chaos some of the people managed to climb aboard their fuel tanker and set sail northward, hoping to find a place too cold for the creatures to follow. Others sailed southward, a few went east and others stayed in the Shallow Sea, searching for an island untouched by people or monsters.
Rig Towns: When the mainlands were taken by plague and chaos many along the Gulf of Mexico took to water. Instead of settling on islands they came across the oil rigs that float offshore. More than a few of the people who worked on oil rigs returned to land to bring their families to the safty of the rigs. Most were taken by plauge but a few avoided destruction and survived long enough for the other nations to discover them. By then they had formed into a group of quasi city states, and they offered there oil in exchange for manufactured goods and food.
Notable Jobs
Rig Runs: As the survivors of the Collapse started to rebuild the oil rigs of the Gulf of Mexico became everyone’s main source of power. Some of the rigs were still in human hands after the rash outbreak, but getting the oil from the rigs to where they were needed was a feat in of itself. Usually the tanker is escorted by a small group of scouts using sail ships who send back warnings of leviathan sightings to redirect the course of the tanker.
Once there many times the rig would have attracted smaller monsters who cling to the structure to rest. Since fire is out of the question the tanker sends ‘barnacle scrapers’ who use guns and blades to clear the structure floor by floor.
Falconaires: With the majority of mammals dead or worse, and with radios completely useless many people turned to rearing carrier birds. The falconaires had to be sanctioned by a government official in order to sell or even breed birds as they feared the creatures might carry the rash. Sea gules are also a welcomed sight by sailors, as they often circle above large groups of mermaids or a leviathan. These birds are almost revered by many of the Shallow Sea’s inhabitants, to the point that most feral cats were hunted to extinction on many islands.
Knights of Alvernia/Knights of Cat Isle: Though the island was technically part of the Carib League the Knights of Alvernia were largely an independent faction. Cat Island was lucky to avoid the fate of the main Bahaman island, and soon the island became the staging ground for Carib League expeditions. However as the Carib League started to lose interest in the expeditions they largely abandoned the island, however many of the people who had started refused to give up, and broke away to continue attempts to retake land. They started wearing metal armor which proved effective enough against smaller monsters. Their protective gear eventually earned them the nickname of knights and many within the organization took a liking to the moniker. They did well for a while but they lacked the infrastructure to make or maintain their guns and eventually fell back to bladed weapons and molotovs. They were still active in year forty when Cat Isle went quiet.
Poll
