Virginia (1983: Doomsday)

The Republic of Virginia is an American survivor state located along the Appalachian Mountains.

Pre-Doomsday
The area that would make up the Republic was the heart of the US coal country. It would at its height include most of the state of West Virginia, Southwest Virginia, the Shenandoah Valley and the Kentucky part of the Cumberland plateau.

Post-Doomsday
The only place in West Virginia targeted during Doomsday was the panhandle. where the Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel manufacturing plants were located. The strikes also destroyed the city of Wheeling. Meanwhile, radiation from the east coast and the Great Lakes inundated parts of the area. The state governments in the region collapsed and political control reverted to a local level. The federal government kept order for some time around The Greenbrier Hotel and city of White Sulphur Springs, however this ended in May 1984 when Vice President was evacuated to Australia.

The region quickly fragmented between many squabbling warlords, the borders of these states were extremely fluid and chaotic until a rogue Army General from Fort Campbell arrived in the area with the 101st Airborne.

Establishment
Major General James E. Thompson moved the 101st into the region after the situation in Kentucky/Tennessee became too difficult to contain. He hoped to find an area that had only a minimal fallout impact. After taking control of the city of Charleston, West Virginia, Thompson set out to bring order to the region. Since the area had devolved into legions of small states, Thompson used a "divide and conquer" strategy to eventually finish off the last of the warlords in 1994. The 101st Airborne also received some help from various National Guard units that sided with Thompson to defeat the remaining warlords.

It would take another two years to fully bring the area under control after the last rogue state was destroyed. Guerrilla attacks launched from isolated mountain valleys continued to threaten the new state Thompson was trying to build. The day the last gang cell was destroyed (September 6th) is celebrated as Victory Day in the Republic. It was also the same day that Thompson declared the Republic of Virginia.

Captured POWs, meanwhile, were given life prison sentences to serve in labor battalions tasked with rebuilding the infrastructure of the region. Most die early due to the intense work and harsh conditions.

Contact with Superior
Curious to see what has happened to the rest of the country, President-General Thompson sent a team of explorers to the Midwest. While in Ohio, the team ran into a similar team from the. After informing the President about their discovery, they request the honor to visit the newly discovered nation. The discovery of more survivors in North America created spontaneous celebrations in Virginia. After a few years serving as the first official Virginian representatives to Superior, they departed for Virginia. Thompson soon after established an official embassy in 1993.

Expansion
Since the formative years the Republic has always controlled the West Virginia area and even parts of Virginia and Kentucky. Because of lowering radiation levels in "East" Virginia, they had sent scout parties to the region to assess the damage, and to find survivors. They did, in the communities of Danville, Roanoke, and Lynchburg. Also of note were the communities of Lexington and Woodstock. They housed the Virginia Military Institute, and Massanutten Military Academy, respectively. They had fortified themselves into the community. Gaining their loyalty was as simple as informing them of the high position the miltary has in Virginian society.

Contact with Australia
On September 7, 2009, a Virginian patrol came upon an Australian pilot who had crash landed over Virginia earlier in the year. Having lived in the wilderness on his own for several months now, the pilot was grateful to finally be rescued. Contact was made by radio with, who relayed the information to the.

Government
The President is voted in by only those eligible to vote (18 years of age and two tours of duty, irrespective of gender). It is this semblance of democracy that keeps the citizens from rebelling. There is a rudimentary Congress in place, with the House of Representatives being elected directly by the people and the Senate selected by the President. There is the dominant Federalist Party, and recently the old Democratic Party had reformed itself. However, another effect of the militaristic society is that all government officials, from the President-General to a lowly mailman, wear army uniforms. Former President-General Thompson still wears his uniform from the days of commanding the 101st Airborne. However, in recent years with Virginia facing international condemnation, and Thompson's health getting worse and worse, it was planned that he would step down from office and allow a free election. He also removed the "life-long term" clause from the Constitution. Supporters for the old Democratic and Republican parties come out of hiding. The election took place on Halloween. Though, it was much more Democratic than what is normal is Virginia, Federalist candidate Michael H. Sumrall won, due to beloved former President-General Thompson giving him his support. October 24th also was a red letter day. It was the first time the citizens had democratically elected its senators. Most districts voted in Federalist candidates, but a sizable margin of seats in the house being filled by Democrats. Those are the seats in the periphery districts in "East" Virginia, and Kentucky voting Democratic. However, due to the newly reformed Republican Party's tendancy to cause partisan bickering, they were only able to win a single paltry district

Congress
Federalist Party: 14 (48%)

Democratic Party: 14 (48%)

Republican Party: 1 (4%)

NOTE: These numbers are due to overly cumbersome and buly districts being divided up due to the naturally smaller population of Virginia. One district of note is the area arround the captiol of Charleston. Due to gratitude to the first President-General, when it was formed into its own district, they voted to name themselves the Thompson District.

Military
Due to the extremely violent and dangerous nature of the area, the military has been enshrined in their society. The soldiers get better housing, better food, better medical care and better pay than any other occupation in the nation. Virginia also practices mandatory conscription, requiring all residents between the ages of 18-24 range to serve at least one tour of duty (serving a second tour of duty allows you to vote). The Army also serves as a standing police force during times of peace. They personally dispense the harsh punishments for infractions, which include whippings, executions and hard labor in radioactive territory.

Air Force
Virginia also supports an Air Force but it receives mostly outdated equipment with the Army getting the more modern weapons. The Air Force uses old planes from the West Virginian Air National Guard. In its recent expansion, a dozen or so large and heavily armed airships were constructed. These were to serve the purposes of airborne carriers, battleships and destroyers. The Air Force was to serve as a "fleet in the sky" until a proper Navy could be constructed.

Navy
Virginia also supports a River Navy, but it receives mostly outdated equipment with the Army getting the more modern weapons. The Navy uses several patched together river monitors. However, recently the monitors have begun to be replaced or upgraded as the Virginians invest more funds in the other branches of its military.

101st Airborne
The 101st Airborne remains the elite unit of Virginia, only taking the best soldiers and officers from the three branches. Though technically a part of the Army, in practice they act as another branch of the military answerable only to the President-General. Service in the 101st is usually desired by many young Virginian men who seek to later follow careers in politics. Besides being a heavily armed strike force, the 101st also guards the President-General and other Virginian VIPs.

Weapons
Each branch of the Military utilizes a form of the Thompson submachine gun, because of its reliability and low expense to manufacture. However, like everything, the Army version is the best and is constantly improved upon. The "newest, latest, greatest" version is the only weapon deemed good enough for the 101st Airborne. The M16 assult rifle, M60 GPMG and various other weapons from before Doomsday remain in use .

Mechanized
The vehicle pool of the Virginian Army gained a large boost in recent years. A short expedition to the military museum in Aberdeen provided an amazing discovery. Tanks! The actual specimens were left at the site, but they found blueprints in normally classified files. When they were brought back to Virginia, Thompson put a small research team to investigate armoured vehicles. On April Fool's Day 2009 their efforts finally bore fruit. They unveiled the M4A6 Thompson Medium Tank. Looking like the offspring of a Pershing and a King Tiger (because it is), it was the first armoured vehicle designed after Doomsday. Since then there have been a grand total of a dozen vehicles produced. It mainly serves as a way to impress potential allies and demoralize potential foes. In addition the army uses such vehicles as the M60A3 Patton MBT, the M1 Bradley APC and the M551 Sheridan light tank.

Operations
In November of 2009, when representatives of Portland accepted Virginia's offer to send a military force to help them with reclaiming the state, such a force was created. The Virginian Expeditionary Force consists of almost the entire 101st Airborne, and all the Thompson tanks currently in existance. The members of the 101st assigned to guarding the President-General and all other Federal VIPs forms the backbone of the Elite Guard. These are the best of the best, though they themselves will no longer serve on the battlefield.

Law & Order
The government relies on draconian punishments to keep order. Minor crimes get lashes and time in the stockade, while major crimes get hangings or firing squads. This harsh system is in place to keep the region from dissolving into anarchy again. Other crimes get hard labor in radioactive terrain. The judicial system is close to the pre-Doomsday system, but has been restructured to give extremely quick trials where the accused have no representation and are immediately sentenced to lashes, hard labor or death. If there is a silver lining to this system, it is that is is a far greater deterrent than the old US Judicial system. In fact, crime in Virgina has gone down by 95%. However, in more recent years there have been a growing number of Trials by Jury though, understandably, there is a "three-strike" system in place. If the accused is convicted of three crimes, the sentance is automatically set to execution.

Economy
The infrastructure of the nation was repaired using convict labor, but parts of the country remain reliant on dirt roads. The President-General is making improving these parts of the Virginian roadways a top priority, as it allows for further territorialexpansion. Coal is a major export of the nation, though the convoys transporting it to other survivor communities have to be heavily guarded against bandits. The major importer of Virginian coal is Kentucky, and the official roadway for shipping it is heavily gaurded on every single kilometer. In order to combat oil shortages, the Virginians are pursuing a combination of Ethanol and coal-produced synthetic oil.

Alcohol
The alcohol production industry in North America took a major blow when much of the nation's wheat was destroyed in Doomsday. Since the Virginian government knew how alcohol was needed to help keep the population content with the government they legalized the production, sale and consumption of corn whiskey commonly known as "Moonshine". The first official "Moonshine" distillery, the Lee Whiskey Company opened in 1999 in Fairmont. Since then it has expanded into most major cities, thanks to major support from the Virginian government. It has been given an unofficial monopoly, as other whiskey companies cannot cross county or state borders. It has 2,500 employees on its payroll nation-wide, and has earned its CEO William Lee $5,000,000. Its distinctive label, featuring the CEO's ancestor Robert E. Lee has made it the only product in the nation to have true "brand recognition".

Steel
The ruined steel mills at Wheeling were recently replaced by brand-new steel mills at Parkersburg. They had been built using convict labor and government funding as part of a move to restore Virginian infastructure. Virginian unemployment levels in the area were easily cut in half by the mills opening on May 12th, 2010

Arms
Due to the Virginian military's high position in Virginian society, there has allways been a demand for weapons to arm the troops. Untill recently the Virginian military used recycled metal from old cars and other sources. There were even jobs created to search through the old pre-Doomsday garbage dumps and junkyards to find usable metal. These "dumpster divers" (as they called themselves) risked injury and illness to get the metal. This changed when the Parkersburg steel mills came online. Though the dumpster divers were no longer in fierce demand, they stayed in business because the Virginian government didn't want to rely on the only recently established steel mills.

Automobiles
Originally the production of automobiles was very limited, and their use was mainly limited to the bigwigs of the government and the military. The supply of metal created by the dumpster divers had allowed production to increase, by they remained expensive. However, when the Parkersburg steel mills opened they became plentiful enough for the ordinary citizen to afford. And as a result of Virginian experiments into alternate fuels every single car manufactured is fueled with Ethanol. Virginia imports a good portion of the Ethanol from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The car's straight-laced, militaristic design is countered by the fact that most owners paint murals or use decals on it. Every single "Tommy" (based on the name of the manufacturer) is a driving work of art.

Sports
The government, seeing sports as a good morale booster, has reconstructed leagues for most popular pre-Doomsday sports. However, no sport is emphasized over another. Virginians play American Football, Baseball, Basketball and Ice Hockey equally.

Americana Games
The Virginian Republic is to host the Americana Games, a regional version of the Olympic Games. They have allready started training their athletes, who are naturally taken from the military. They are also commencing construction of the venues and stadiums for the games in Richmond. The natural influx of people to the city will accelerate the reconstruction and reinhabitation of the city of Richmond. The Opening Ceremony is to take place on July 4th,2010. This is to give the participating nations a fair chance to prepare, and it was the day the United States was officially founded.

Film Industry
Since Doomsday the film idustry has suffered greatly. Hollywood had been wiped off the map when Los Angeles was destroyed. However Thompson created a fledgling film studio in the small town of Beckley, West Virginia. The small amount of operating motion picture theatres were not officially required to play the films produced, but members of the 101st Airborne unofficially "persuaded" them to do so. Many of the films were directed by the President-General himself. The media in Virginia is controlled by the previously government-run Virginian Media Agency. A prime example of Virginian film is the historical epic Re-Birth Of a Nation, which chronicles the journeys of the Presient-General as he travelled to West Virginia, and freed the oppressed people from the evil warlords and gangsters ruling the land. They also show old-fashioned news reels, which are naturally heavily biased in Virginia's favor. This is not likely to change, even with the VMA's new civilian ownership. Due to the new Virginian Film Industry, the city of Beckley has officially become the fastest growing, if not largest, city in Virginia.

Newspapers

 * The Virginian Post - Publishes daily with a joint issue with The Kentucky Tribune every Sunday


 * The Kentucky Tribune - A newspaper from Kentucky that publishes Monday, Wednesday, Friday and a joint issue with The Virginian Post every Sunday

Health
The high radiation blowing in from all directions has made cancer cases extremely prevalent. So much so that the government has pushed for state-sponsored euthanasia for terminally ill cancer patients so they will not be a drain on state resources. Fortunately the radiation, and thus cancer, levels have slowly gone down over the years.

Modern Times
Recently a team of engineers was sent to the former Virginian capital, Richmond to bring it back up to code for inhabitation. The team restored a small area arround the old capitol building, and New Richmond, a small villiage inhabited by government employees, was born. President-General Sumrall has delayed moving the national government until the city of New Richmond is completed. However, the process speeds up considerably when people of essential skills are encouraged by incentives to move to New Richmond. Peay has also made it known that when the national government is moved, the original name of Richmond would be restored.

Recently a new port has opened in Hopewell, East Virginia. The project started two years ago when the head of a major trading firm realized that his firm would experience higher profits if they were opened to new markets overseas. Halfway through the project the Virginian government gained interest in the project. They granted it official government funding which was a godsend to the project, as it sped up the pace considerably. They completed the project on January 11th, 2009. Since then the population of the town of Hopewell has swelled with the shipping company's employees, foreign sailors and their families.

International Relations
The Virginians have had a recent free election, and membership in the LoN is likely to follow soon. The Virginians have become increaingly close to the Kentuckians, and recent talks have laid down the foundation of an alliance between the two nation. Since the discovery of the survivor community in Portland, President-General Sumrall has made joint statement with Kentuckian President Jim Bunning supporting the city-state. He offered a military expedition to help the Portlanders reclaim the former state of Tennessee. When it was accepted, Virginian President-General Peay signed the bill creating it into law It has reached Portland, and has commenced reestablishing the modern utilities of the area. The Virginian have proved hostile to the CRUSA, as the majority of citizens think its cause was lost long ago. Virginian President-General Sumrall had this to say on the subject.

"Don't call me unpatriotic. I loved America, but I love Virginia just as much. But, as much as it pains me to say this : America is gone and Virginia is still here. The United States of America has been dead and buried as a nation for a quarter of a century. It is gone and it is never coming back. And while I may not want the high ideals of that great land to fade away, I will not stand a futile attempt to reserect the long dead nation. It is an abomination and an insult to the memory of that great land. I know that what is dead should stay dead the people attempting revive it are fools so blinded by desperation that they cannot or will not realize that the status quo is permanently changed. Contrary to popular belief in their ranks, no amount of wishful thinking will take it back to that day in the year of our lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three. Nothing the Cairman of the CRUSA says will ever convince me otherwise. America will never rise again."

The Virginians have established relations with Kentucky, Superior, Wisconsin, Delmarva, Vermont and the various southern citystates. The relations with Kentucky grew strong enough for them to found the Dixie Alliance (1983: Doomsday) between them. The relations with the rest are mostly cordial, except for one exception. The relations with Delmarva are still quite rocky as that state still controls territory in "East" Virginia, which the Virginians feel is rightfully theirs.

National Historic Landmarks
main article: List of National Historic Landmarks in Virginia

The Virginian National Register of Historic Places serves the function of the old pre-Doomsday American institution of the same name. They catalogue the structures and locations of historic significance. The Virginian Park Service is tasked with keeping these sites in habitable condition.