Feudalism

A traveler to Medieval America would recount some of the amazing and fascinating sites. The monuments of Washington D.C. and Sacramento. The Barbarian Cowboys and their endless herds of cattle. The Secretaries and their Voodoo riuals, the Mormons and their temples. But ultimately, on a day to day basis, two thirds of continent live under the rule of the warlords. Though it is often used in the context of ancient settings, and feels like it, the word “warlord” is fairly new to the lexicon, coined in the 1800s, and really only caught on to describe failed states in Asia and Africa But now it aptly describes the landscape of a post-collapse America.

The sources of the warlord class are multiple. Some sprang from small town sheriffs and militias. Sometimes it was organized crime. Security firms who took crops as tribute. Even legitimately elected officials who kept postponing elections. All eventually took up the sword and now rule by it. It most caught in the American heartland because its agricultural potential and relative distance between towns made it ripe for the Manorial economy, as opposed to say, the Northeast, where many of the early settlements were more copacetic with human scale. Ohio in particularly became the nexus of America’s new Feudal Core—it had the grain to feed men and horses, it was between the metalworking hubs of Michigan and Pennyvania, rivers to set up choke points. There, the warlords are able to move quickly between the plains, demanding tribute while setting up easily defensible fortifications in the hills. Even further into the Appalachians are even sturdier keeps, but the kingdoms themselves are generally smaller and more disjointed.

Further west and south however, stone is rarer, and the space is either wide open, or swampy, so here the classical medieval castle will not do, and so the warlords build pyramid earth mounds with wooden palisades and watchtowers, and generally take the “best defense is a good offense approach”. The South has otherwise taken to feudalism pretty handily, drawing from both the historical plantation economies and Japanese daimyo. The Midwest however, focuses more on grain than cash crops, and their plantations are more akin to the Roman Latifundium.

A great deal of the former U.S. states exist almost immutably, but long-term dynasties in the Feudal Core are rare. Who rules each throne can be an absolutely chaotic mix of elections, inheritance, conquest, or trial by combat. Though the relationship isn’t always perfect, (On account of the Warlords’ habit of slaughtering each other and making attempts at unity hard) the warlords’ fiefdoms and the Church can often have a symbiotic relationship. The Church provides the warlords with bridges, hospitals, and the rather tedious things in life they can’t or don’t want to bother with. And in turn, the Warlords serve as protectors of the faith on the frontiers. The worry is constantly on the Barbarians that surround the Heartland, and as a result, we’ve seen the cultures bleed a little into each other. Thus, we see somewhat similar Feudal structures for Voodoo Louisiana, New Israelite Texas, and Catholic Quebec.

A major concession is that the warlords do not take on the classically European royal titles like “King” and “Duke”, as that would be Unconstitutional, and therefore, very liturgically ucomfortable. “No kings but Christ and Elvis” is often spouted. “President” “Colonel” and “Governor” are more often spouted. It was with these distinctions of American nobility, feudal lords were pretty much able to get away with acting like medieval rulers from pretty much any other country. Skirting around the Constitution also allows for slavery. The 13th Amendment expressly forbids involuntary servitude except in the case conviction, but well, it’s easier to be considered a criminal in the middle ages. Sumptuary laws, debt, heresy all led to being convictions, and thus working the farm, and some fine local warlords fine tuned it so that sentences could be passed generationally. Perhaps the most binding cycle is vagrancy. An entire segment of the population, even if rereleased, would find themselves homeless, and this vagrants, and hence, criminals.