New Home: History

4810-4893AD The Free State

With the departure of the Overlords, New Home entered a period of unparalleled openness and freedom. Genuine attempts were made to endow the new state with stable, democratic institutions. Within a decade, the war damage was gone. Its economy boosted by war reconstruction, New Home had never been more prosperous. Castes were officially disapproved of. Discrimination on grounds of race creed colour or caste was quickly outlawed by the new democracy. However society was slow to change. To this day, caste remains an important factor in New Home society.

When the Outward Bound returned in 4860, the event was celebrated worldwide. Ten years later the ship departed once again for Colchis. This time the ship was loaded with New Home’s brightest and best, and equipped with thousands of tonnes of the finest quality colonisation supplies.

The Free State was structured as a decentralised representative democracy. Each community elected it’s own Council, which largely ran local affairs without interference from higher bodies. Wider powers were held by Regional and Continental assemblies. The World Congress acted merely as a talking shop, with hardly any real power.

Unfortunately the Free State soon became riddled with corruption. Self-serving politicians quickly learned to play on local or caste rivalries

4894-4977AD Collapse

More and more wealth became concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. Corruption starved all levels of government of cash. Eventually the rule of law began to collapse as local militias and vigilantes took the place of centrally controlled police and military.

Minor wars between neighbouring regions, or between crime lords and vigilante groups taxed the resources of the state even further. Government of outlying regions fell to strong yet capricious individuals.

Unused to freedom, the people of New Home mistook it for anarchy. Eventually crime and lawlessness stalked the streets of every town and city. Petty warlords arose and wreaked terrible destruction on their neighbours.

Ultimately the economy collapsed, and New Home’s standard of living plunged. Armed bands roamed the countryside. Rival warlords competed for dominance. At first their scope was wide, and whole continents fell under their tyrannical sway. Soon however, as resources began to run low, the warlords’ scope narrowed until control of individual towns and cities was often contested between petty local chiefs.