Rheged (1983: Doomsday)

The Rheghed Co-operative (known locally as Rheged, pronounced Regg-Ed) is based in the northern and central parts of the former English County of Cumbria.

On doomsday in the south of the county the port of Barrow in Furness is hit by a 10 kilotonne tactical nuclear device and the Sellafield Nuclear Facility was either hit by a bomb of an undetermined size or more likely the reactor went critical and suffered a major meltdown. Apart from those two irradiated areas the majority of the county survived practically unscathed.

In the days and weeks after DD Chaos reigned in Cumbria as law and order collapsed. Police officers abandonded their posts to protect their families from roving bands of bandits and former military units, which became known as reavers.

In order to protect themselves from these reavers many people retreat to the main towns of the area and erect makeshift walls around the towns to protect themselves. Bands of survivors made runs out into the wilds to gather food and other supplies. Protected farms were set up by survivors by the late 1980's in order to make the food supplies more reliable.

By the mid 1990's many of the attacks from reavers had diminished and the walled towns began to open up to the surrounding land, suprisingly even after over 10 years many of the herds of sheep that had been on the fells were still there, a little wilder but they had actually increased in numbers since the abandonment of the upland farms.

In the late 1990's the walled townships began trading with each other and in 1998 the Cumbria Co-operative was set up from the townships of Workington, Keswick, Maryport and Cockermouth so that trading would be far easier. In 2000 the townships of Carlile, Windermere Town, Kendal and Whitehaven join the Co-operative and in 2001 the name was changed to the Rheghed Co-Operative (Rheged being the old name for Cumbria) in order to distance themselves from the old United Kingdom.

In 2003 contact is made with the Kingdom of Cleveland from the east side of the Pennine hills, the Cleveland soldiers chased off reavers that had been harrassing the township of Carlile. In 2008 the Kingdom of Cleveland provided Keswick, Workington, Maryport and Kendal with electric wind generators.

Trade routes were set up within two years and in 2007 a rail link was established with the Kingdom of Cleveland.

The main export of Rheged to the Kingdom of Cleveland is roofing slate.

main towns are:


 * Kendal
 * Workington
 * Keswick
 * Cockermouth
 * Whitehaven
 * Maryport
 * Windermere Town
 * Carlile

In 2008 the Rheged Co-operative began using the Cleveland pound as a new form of currency for trade.

As of 2010 The Rheged Co-operative does not have any centralised goverenment, the townships that exist within Rheged each manage themselves seperatly as well as an area of land surrounding the towns. Townships will work with each other to increase trade and for major works such as road systems, irrigation, water supplies and mining.

Many people in the area covered by the Rheged Co-operative do not consider themselves part of a country, many do not wish to become part of the Kingdom of Cleveland or the Celtic Alliance as they see large countries as the major cause of wars.

govenmental organisation
Rheged does not have a conventional govenmental layout, mainly due it being a co-operative of many small parishes and townships. As of 2010 Rheged comprises of 17 parishes and 8 townships.

In order to run Rheged as a trade co-operative and also to run basic utilities such as water, electricity, police force, fire brigade, hospital and doctor service, road repair and judicial service there are monthly meetings (or more regularly if needed) of representatives in Keswick town hall. Each parish sends one representative elected by his or her parish council. Each townships sends one representative elected by the citizens of the township. Once every two years a head representive is elected by his or her fellow representatives, he or she is known as the procurator.

Due to the application of Northumbria and the expected application of Cleveland to the OBN. In September 2010 the procurator and leading representives from the Rheged Co-Operative approched the Organisation of British Nations with hope of increasing trade links with the members of the OBN with a possible membership application in the near future.