Setting: Northern Virginia 2071
Northern Virginia has been a literal and figurative battleground for the past XX years since the Awakening and Crash . The UCAS/CAS split has been especially hard on the region. The locals were in favor of staying part of the UCAS, but the state decided to join the CAS against their wishes. Locals, backed by UCAS funding, took to the streets and civil war erupted on Christmas 2059 - just before the split was to become legally binding.
Things were going poorly for the locals during the early months of 2060, but their efforts were buoyed by other UCAS friendly folk within the CAS joining their cause as part of a slow trickle of reinforcements over the last 6 months of 2060. These new additions were slowly countered by CAS sympathizers coming south from the UCAS over the course of 2061. The war had reached equilibrium, with neither side gaining much ground. Bull Run slowly became the primary battle line between the two sides, with all land northeast held tenuously by UCAS forces, while all to the southwest was CAS ground.
This all changed in 2063 when The Pawtamac, Algonkian and Mohawk (PAM) alliance claimed the Shenandoah Valley and surrounding region as their own. They had slowly been amassing forces of both those of native American blood, along with many Orc and Troll refugees fleeing the oppression they faced all over the eastern seaboard.
Initially, the UCAS forces saw this as a boon, as the PAM forces primarily battled with CAS militia in WV and western VA. But the tides turned once again when the Elven Conclave of Tir Pindartha started making claims to land in Eastern Ohio, along with Western Pennsylvania and New York state, which had been largely vacated by CAS separatists moving south. They made an accord with the PAM alliance with the goal of driving out all interlopers from the Mid Atlantic forest regions.
By 2067, The battle lines had shifted south almost all the way to Richmond, and west well into the Appalachians as Tir Pindarthan forces pushed their way south through the forests of western VA. The PAM, feeling forced out of the lands they had claimed struck back, buoyed by a new alliance with the newly-created Dwarven nation of Grol Appalachia. UCAS sympathizers in Fairfax County had largely backed out of the conflict altogether by this point, believing that the well-developed tech corridor would be unattractive to the PAM, Tir Pindarthan and Grol Appalachia factions. This confidence was short-lived.
Grol Appalachia fought fiercely, determined to not have the lands above their mountain abodes ruled by Elves, and the Elves, seeing the vast expanses of non-mountainous forests available, signed a treaty in 2068 agreeing to leave the mountains south of the Mason-Dixon line to Dwarven leadership. The PAM, worried that their alliance with the Elves was about to become a liability, put in place a plan to unleash magical terror on the Eastern Seaboard. Their plan was twofold. First, they wanted to dissuade the Elves from encroaching further into the Virginia forests. Second, they looked to the developed lands of Fairfax County, and hatched a plan to return it to wilderness. Little did they know that Tir Pindarthan leadership was also intending the same thing with the Fairfax Tech corridor, and their attacks launched almost simultaneously in the Spring of 2069.
Magical energy ripped up roads and infrastructure in Manassas, Centreville, and Chantilly, foliage grew up through parking lots and high-rise structures. For the first month, both sides were shocked that their attacks seemed to be so much more effective than initially anticipated, until each started to receive reports that the other was participating in the same cause despite no intentional coordination being done by either faction.
These attacks also caught the attention of the CAS, UCAS and Grol Appalachians. The CAS were furious that land they considered to be theirs was under magical attack by two factions. The UCAS were upset that their allies in Northern Virginia were being assaulted again after what had seemed like a cease fire in the conflict, and Grol Appalachia had become economic allies with the Northern Virginians, buying their technology to increase mining production, and selling the resultant mined material to them in return. They were loath to see this alliance lost due to the land being returned to wild.
And now, here in the Winter of 2070 we find ourselves, and a new faction seems to be emerging: The NoVa Assembly. It has gained the support of several major corporations operating in the region who are tired of being pulled in every direction at the whims of others. They see a different future for Northern Virginia: Independence. They have also found unexpected allies in their independence movement – the citizens of Washington DC who have also been seeking independence.
Nobody is quite sure who is the mastermind behind this new alliance, but rumors are swirling in the underground. This is the world into which the campaign begins. Which factions will come out on top? Which will be destroyed? Which will you side with?
The UCAS?
The CAS?
The PAM?
Tir Pindartha?
Grol Appalachia?
The NoVa Assembly?
Or somebody else entirely?