The District of Columbia
Freedom. Democracy. Liberty. Property.
The District of Columbia is the largest and the wealthiest republic in the Nexus. Unlike its neighbors, the freedom of the press is protected and cherished, as is the right to say and do whatever one desires, so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of others. Its denizens are fiercely proud of their district and many would lay down their lives to protect its territorial integrity and regional interests.
Columbia derives its name from its patron goddess, the goddess of free thought, knowledge, wealth, and victory. She watches over her people, protects their rights through the holy commandments of the constitution, and guides them in times of peril. Unfortunately, with the rise of Little Russia, peril has become commonplace indeed.
Columbia herself is immortal, indestructible, and formless. The only way to truly destroy her would be to destroy every one of her followers. However, while she can bless certain individuals with exceptionalism, without a physical form, her options for direct interference are limited. To circumvent this, she creates avatars suitable to house a portion of her divine essence and protect Columbia’s independence with the help of the richest members of society.
Colombia, and by extension, her followers, are obsessed with the forward march of technology. Many futuristic gadgets are available for sale here that enhance quality of life, even including some cybernetic enhancements and attachments. The district is powered by a massive fusion power plant that provides nearly free electricity in effectively limitless capacities.
Culture and Demographics
Columbia is populated by people of all civilized races. Humans are the majority, but one living within her borders would come across elves, dwarves, demonspawn, and the like on a daily basis. The majority live comfortable, middle class lives, and nobody is truly left behind. Educational opportunities are abundant, and if nothing else, one may always join the military and swear to protect their country.
Healthcare and basic housing is guaranteed for low income citizens through a combination of government and temple grants, as well as charitable donations from powerful corporations and individuals. Higher income people must purchase a plan from private sources, as do any foreigners living within her boundaries.
More than anything else though, Columbians love their guns. Nearly every citizen above the age of four knows how to shoot a gun, taught in schools by trained professionals. Mock tank battles are performed as a sport by schoolchildren, where they learn cooperation and motor skills required to drive and maintain the outdated vehicles. Most adults own multiple firearms of varying levels of strength, and going out to hunt supernatural animals is a time honored tradition. Basic firearms knowledge is considered important enough to be tested on when applying for citizenship.
Unlike many other districts, citizenship is not an automatic process. While Columbia’s love for her citizens is limitless, land and space is unfortunately not. There is a fully fleshed out immigration process which one must go through in order to gain full rights under the law, and the government may evict non-citizens which it considers as rabble rousers. Among other requirements, one must know how to fire a gun, pass educational requirements, assert a usefulness to the goddess, and swear their eternal and undying loyalty to Her.
Another more subtle benefit of citizenship exists unspoken, but known to all who receive it. The presence of the goddess in their daily lives has done wonders for their mental and spiritual well being. Even those who never reach the heights of the ultra successful find themselves experiencing lives they feel have purpose and value. As such, they are all the more inclined to work toward their goals and experience good relations with their fellows.
Geography and Landmarks
The District of Columbia covers a considerable amount of land, but is defined primarily by being bordered by the Great Divide and its enormous estuary network on three sides. The coasts of these waterways are occupied by sprawling port cities which serve as refueling bases and centers of trade. Naval embankments meant to keep sea monsters and would-be conquerors away stretch along the portions of the coast where the land is low enough for invaders to potentially land. As one goes further inland the average elevation increases, and urbanization generally decreases. Suburbs give way to interstate highway and a multitude of small factory towns, and villages surrounded by miles of forest or farmland.
On the southern coast is the second largest city in the district, Port Independence. The site of the first and second wars for freedom, it is now the center of the district’s naval construction and coordination efforts. It is full of monuments and temples to the glory of Columbia, and serves as the first arrival point for all legitimate immigrants who didn’t just spontaneously show up due to the nature of the Nexus. There are massive walled compounds just beyond the shore set up to contain legal migrants for short periods during the processing period for their residential visas.
In the very center of the district lies the capital of Columbia, Known as Washington, and informally as the District Center, it is an enormous, sprawling city which dominates the landscape for miles in every direction with its pristine, glistening skyscrapers. In the very center of the capital is a mountain holy to Columbia, the peak of which has an enormous bronze statue of Columbia with an everlit torch. It is said that Columbia looks over all her peoples from her heavenly perch, protecting them and their unprecedented prosperity. At is base is the Capitol building, where congress meets, and the Supreme Court of D.C., which oversees all rulings of law in the district at its discretion.
ColumbiaThe original form of Columbia that is ubiquitously represented in shrines, temples, and statues throughout the district. She rose up from the people’s wishes for freedom and lead them to victory in their quest for independence ages past. Now, she watches over every one of her followers, pushing them to work hard and achieve the success that she knows they can obtain with enough work.
Physical AttributesStrength: —
Agility: —
Durability: —
Magic: None
Magic Resistance: Divine
Willpower Determinator
Other Abilities: Columbian ExceptionalismColumbia pushes her people, subtly encouraging them to strive for excellence and glory. She loves every one of them, and wishes for them to be the best that they can be. She appears to them in dreams and visions. Rewards come to those who work hard. One will find oneself rising through the ranks to the greatest extent of their abilities. Learning new things will be easier for her followers, and some of the best lawyers in the Nexus originate from Columbia. The greatest of her charges may receive more concrete blessings which enhance their abilities far beyond their normal human limits, raising their physical stats and granting them inhuman abilities.
AvatarsColumbia is unable to interfere directly with the world in her true form. She is limited to appearing in dreams. She instead manifests a fraction of her divine spark and creates avatars she works through to spread the word of freedom and tolerance. Using these forms, she protects her beloved citizens through superior firepower. She may only maintain a few avatars at a time.
While her avatars have their own personalities and unique strength of wills, they are inextricably linked to Columbia. More severe mental compulsions that take contol of them would prove to be completely ineffective, and if the goddess desires it, she can make them aware of lesser ones which are twisting their perceptions of the world. However, she values freedom and independence, even within herself, so she would usually refrain unless directly asked by them, or if she needed them to perform their duties at maximum efficiency immediately.
WashingtonPhysical AttributesStrength: Heroic
Agility: Incredible
Durability: Legendary
Magic: None
Magic Resistance: Medium
Willpower Zen
Other Abilities: Superior FirepowerDC’s citizens love guns, and Columbia herself is no different. She has nine guns, each of which pack the punch of sixteen inch naval artillery guns. She also possesses secondary armaments, including, point defense gatling guns(Fantastic) which she can use for both combat and shooting down incoming projectiles, including magical bolts and missile pods(Legendary). She only has a limited amount of missiles, requiring time to generate more after using them up. Once fired, they home in on their target.
Melee SkillWashington is incredibly strong, and often resorts to fighting like a brutish beast. However, this lack of traditional form or skill hides her true power. She has an uncanny ability to predict exactly what moves her opponents will do next, and instinctually incorporates that into her fighting style. She’s impossible to ambush, and seems to have a sixth sense for combat that borders into the supernatural.
Divine GraceAnybody can sense her divine origins in her presence. She’s unnaturally attractive and has a calming air to any who worship Columbia, and her mere presence bolsters morale greatly. Troops led by her will not break, and will happily fight to the last to defend their beloved country. If she were to die, these effects would immediately vanish. It also allows her to walk on water.
Washington was Columbia’s first avatar which she took during the war for independence against Pine Garden. Large, powerful, and boisterous, Washington is the district’s primary source of defense from incursions. She is well known among the citizenry for frequenting loud parties where lots of food and drink is involved, and many men have bragged on the net about bedding her. Washington is the supreme commander of the armed forces, charged with defending democracy and upholding the rule of law.
EnterpriseStrength: Fantastic
Agility: Fantastic
Durability: Heroic
Magic: None
Magic Resistance: Medium
Willpower Gritty
Other Abilities: Base StrikeEnterprise is very different from her sister. While Washington uses overwhelming firepower to obliterate her foes, Enty takes a more surgical approach to combat. Using her bow, Enterprise launches drones equipped with a wide variety of armaments-most commonly autocannons, missiles, and smart bombs. They are capable of scouting large areas, and are often seen patrolling the city’s airspace, protecting it from unwanted intrusions. Drones equipped with autocanons hit for fantastic damage, while bombs move in more slowly and can be shot down, but hit for legendary. They fly around at about the speed of sound, and can be shot down by a well placed bullet from a high-caliber rifle. She can control up to ninety aircraft at once, but needs time to deploy them into battle. About thirty routinely patrol the air at all times, while any more need to be deployed from her bow-catapult.
The Wings of LibertyIn Columbian mythology, the bald eagle is the form that truly pious individuals take after death, watching over their brethren forevermore. Enterprise is the guardian of the strongest of the eagles. This immense bird follows her around everywhere, and attacks in tandem with her planes. While she fights, the bird attacks in pincers, putting enemies in a pinch. It is straight fantastic, and can be summoned and unsummoned by her at will.
Melee SkillWhile Enterprise is a carrier, she is also extremely accomplished in close quarters combat. Utilizing her bow to launch kamikaze attacks in close quarters, as well as being able to hold her own with even the best of the best in a fistfight, she’s an extremely dangerous combatant.
Divine GraceAnybody can sense her divine origins in her presence. She’s unnaturally attractive and has a calming air to any who worship Columbia, and her mere presence bolsters morale greatly. Troops led by her will not break, and will happily fight to the last to defend their beloved country. If she were to die, these effects would immediately vanish. It also allows her to walk on water.
Enterprise herself also serves as the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Columbia, and has final judicial say over interpretations of the laws and their constitutionality. She’s more demure than her outgoing sister, but she’s well known and beloved by the populace all the same. They know that behind her stern face lays a person who truly and utterly cares for their well being.
The Columbian Heresies
No religion is whole. No faith is pure. Across the river from the great District of Columbia lay the lands of the heretics who demonstrate to the world that even having your goddess tell you that you’re doing it wrong to your face isn’t enough to keep doctrines unified. Originally they were a collection of subversive cults, countercultural movements, and political dissidents who in the absence of official recognition or tolerance crossed the river to Columbia’s east, and seceded just a few generations ago. Once they won their independence their unity did not last.
Now they are four in number, and each represents a divergence from mainstream Columbianism. The only thing they have in common is militarism, sectarian competition, and a willingness to close ranks against external threats.
Alaba is made up of the worst of the heretics, those who believe that ‘Columbian exceptionalism’ means that anyone who isn’t Columbian should serve those who are. When Columbians talk about reasons to hate heretics it is these slavers they point to as exhibit number one. They furnish their slave-based economic system by plying the waters of the Divide and the Great Ocean to raid other districts’ coastal settlements for captives. Most slaves are owned by corporations, but wealthy individuals may also possess them directly. Household slaves are considered perverse to possess but are not illegal. Immigration is uncommon but welcome.
Dunham is a collection of prudish conservatives who believe (correctly) that Columbia’s current libertine attitudes are the result of demonic corruption from her seductive neighbors to the west. They believe that by keeping themselves pure of heart and body in the hopes that one day their faith will restore the ‘true form’ of their great goddess. Beyond this distinction they generally resemble ordinary Columbian society, with an extra emphasis on gun ownership and a fondness for river fishing. They and the Jirali came together to construct a great palisade along their borders with the Great Northern Forest to prevent incursions by wildlife and Columbian special forces units.
Name: Americana
Race: Divine Avatar
Age: -
Height: 5’9”
Weight: -
Appearance:
Attributes
Strength: Fantastic
Agility: Fantastic
Durability: Fantastic
Willpower: Shonen Determinator
Magic:
Magic Resistance: High
Other Abilities:
Rogue Avatar:
Americana asserts that she is the last bastion of her goddess’s true form. In a sense, she is correct. She values bravery, chastity, courtesy, honorable conduct, equal rights for all, and more than anything else, purity. To this end, she bides her time creating a powerbase within the walls of Dunham, drawing sustenance from their faith and waiting for the right time for her to strike back and scour the filth which has so thoroughly infected Columbia and her people, and to purge the demonic filth which has been slowly gathering power in the Nexus once and for all. Even as powerful she has become by hoarding power for herself, Americana rejects the notion that she is a goddess in her own rite, insisting on retaining her unfaltering connection to Columbia and resisting her goddess’s ministrations and attempts to negotiate and reconcile. Were her willpower to falter enough, Columbia would be able to forcibly reintegrate her into the whole and end her rebellious streak for good.
Divine Purity
Americana’s purity is her strength. It grants her unparalleled vigor and the will to fight on as a living representation of her ideals. It allows her to manifest armor which will not falter as long as her will to fight remains burning brightly, as well as a blade which shall not be broken so long as she draws breath. These items are direct manifestations of her soul’s will to fight, and as such cannot be stolen. Should they be damaged, scuffs and cuts upon them will begin to close up after a minute, shing ever more brightly as they do so.
Strikes she makes with her blade inflict damage at the rank of legendary, while her armor’s toughness is rated at heroic. She is incredibly skilled with the blade, able to perform artful attacks without a single wasted movement, to read her opponent’s intentions and counterattack with unparalleled accuracy that borders upon the divine.
Matron Goddess of the People
To the people of Dunham, Americana is their collective mother. They do not lust after her as their errant cousins do, and they serve her with the love and respect with which she has so justly earned. It is their duty to obey her in times of trouble, engage in good conduct and treat others with the respect and courtesy which they deserve as fellow humans. In return, she protects them, teaches them, and mingles with them in a manner which would be viewed as almost heretical within modern Columbian society.
When within her presence, those aligned with her feel no fear, as they were within the protection of their family. Those opposed to her, on the other hand, know that their time shall come soon, and only those with exceptional wills are even able to oppose her within her presence. They will feel the intense pressure of her ironclad will crushing down upon them. With a glare, she can make most people flee in terror. making them prone to making mistakes which they might otherwise not make and generally fighting as if one were intensely distracted, preventing them from reaching their full potential. Only those with determinator or zen willpower are able to fully shrug this off, even as they still feel the discomfort. Those with Gritty willpower can resist this well, although as the pressure bears down on them, they may end up making minor mistakes which could cost them the victory over a prolonged fight. Below that, her opponents would be overwhelmed with a desire to flee or surrender, if running away is impossible.
Assets:
Weakness: List anything that an enemy could take advantage of, in combat or otherwise.
Intimacies:
Lesser Tie: Columbia(Herself)
Lesser Tie: Washington(My foolish elder sister)
Greater Tie: The People of Dunham(Matron)
Lesser Tie: Succubi(Contempt)
Greater Cause: I must purify Columbia
Greater Principle: I must always stand by my convictions and do that which is right
Jiral is a lighter shade of black compared to Alaba - they believe that all of humanity are the children of Columbia already, and that all humans should be united beneath her banner. They are very specific about this - only humans are worthy of Columbia’s love and protection, and the lesser races need to at best be kept in benighted ghettos where they cannot pollute their goddess with their filthy prayers, and at worst exterminated so Her great heart cannot reach out in misguided sympathy for their wretched existence. They are the most militant of the Columbian heretics because all of the others hate them almost as much as they fear a crusade by their estranged orthodox fellows.
The Union has embraced the idea of a radical form of Columbian freedom - freedom from economic coercion. On paper they are less a single governing body, and more of a collection of loosely aligned communes who in principle voluntarily share their property. In practice they have evolved into a sort of tribal federation where networks of extended family units retain their property among their affines and barter for what they do not have with other families. They have a rather elaborate system for doing so, and insist that money is not a part of it and that in avoiding such a thing they have escaped the oppression of capital exchanges. They organize themselves at the district level through a council of tribal elders who meet at set dates and times at alternating locations - just in case the Columbians want to try assassinating them while they’re all in one place.