“The world changes, and all that was once strong now proves unsure.”

The world has indeed changed much in the last fifty years, western civilization seems to have failed once again. The great European Union has become but a block of the Islamic Leauge, which now is greatest empire in recorded history, encompassing parts of Indus to the Atlantic Ocean, from Russia to the Sahara. The rest of Africa has become tributaries of this great menace to the north. China has swallowed nations whole as well, save for the parts of India the Muslims claimed. Japan, Tiawan, indeed most of the Pacific has fallen. The Aussies have put up a fight, but how much longer they will las is questionable.

The Americas lie divided as well, Brazil controlling the Caingua Peoples of South America, the Estados Unidos de Mexico claiming the allegiance of Central America and the Caribbean through its promise of conquest to the north. Canada tried to balance the drives of its southern counterparts, while it too eyed the war torn lands of the former U.S. of A..

America, hailed as the last superpower not a hundred years before had finally become so divided that a second civil war had begun. The shock of watching a “destabilized” Middle East unite under a caliph and exert its growing numerical influence through out Europe had pushed the decades of debate about its foreign policy to the fore. The republicans were swept out of almost all offices on the coasts, as well as the White House, due to their involvement in touching off the conflict that gave Tehran its opening. The growing tensions mounted even higher as the liberal democrats pushed forward many unrelated policies and laws that the republicans had fought. America, while it lasted, was a truly progressive state. It did not last long, as large numbers of (suddenly) ex-soldiers gathered in the mid-west in small militias that soon began an uprising.

Were the mid-states justified? Let me lay out the state of the union just before the war. Now, as you can imagine, a truly progressive society is also perfectly tolerant. The greatest crime was intolerance: in deed, in word, and even in thought. Thanks to the legislation built upon the 2009 hate crimes law, no-one was allowed to show intolerance of any kind, and the mere suspicion of the slightest prejudice ruined many careers, many lives.

The churches were investigated early, many caved to the pressure to retain their tax-exempt status, but those that did not not only were charged back taxes for seven years, but they could see pastors dragged from the pulpit to disappear into 're-education' camps. The Catholic Church was the hardest hit, that is those that remained loyal to Pope (who managed to flee to Trinidad before the entire city of Rome was razed). Bishops disappeared as swiftly as the were named, the unwavering voices of hidden priests decried the injustice, and for their efforts the Church was declared a treasonous entity, an enemy of tolerance, and was subjected to persecutions not seen since the Reformation.