Summer begins. Crisp air rolls down the shores, children leave their schoolhouses to run and play, and glistening trains glide through the countryside. Expectant astronauts see the world fade before them, space elevators climb up into the sky, and fireworks pop below. Fisheries dig prawns and clams out of the water, joyous lovers embrace in city squares, and a warning buzzes in everyone’s heads. People scramble. They run and hide as the AIs warn of a new batch of summer storms and massive hurricanes slamming down from the tumultuous and ice free arctic.
The World In General: The African Century has come and it is here to stay. The African Union, which oversees more than a quarter of the human population and wields greater space assets (and more space elevators) than the next four superpowers combined is the undisputed hyperpower on Earth and beyond. That is, whenever it can agree on anything. On the worst of days the African Union is, like most of the planet, a hodgepodge of loosely associated states and regional powers, jockeying for control and prestige on every issue, from resources, to weapons development, to who has the best soccer team and national pop band. On such days the “Old” superpowers of India and China take center stage, between them possessing almost as many people as the African Union, and tendrils that extend to every corner of the planet, though oftentimes the two find themselves far more competitive and less cooperative than neighboring Africa. Despite the apparently global tranquility the world is in a constant tumult. The continuing ravages of climate change (and the resulting costs and recessions needed to fight it) are being met by political upheaval, revolutionary governments, cults and new religions, and an ever more crowded and prickly race to space.
Exciting times ahead to be sure.
The Americas:
The Americas are known as the "sick man of earth", with newer states and simmering conflicts meet decaying gatekeeper states and former powers. North America is dominated by four major powers, Canada, Mexico, the United States and a new player on the block, the Asian-Pacific Union. The status of these three powers however, and which one of them rules the continent, is starting to be questioned. The United States is in a period of decline, the scars of the rise of the great deserts and the droughts which struck some of its most populated and developed sections have yet to heal. The power of the central government is coming under fire, and regionalist powers are emerging once again. In the South the states of the former Confederacy have come back together, now under the banner of Green Philosophy and Nationalist Catholicism, not white nationalism. In the West the Mormons reassert themselves and down in the edge of former California, the disgruntled cities that banded together in a mutual hatred of the rest of the nation have officially joined the Asian Union. As the United States declines, Mexico rises. Although the northern states of Mexico were thoroughly depopulated the great economic engine in the south, which had restarted in the 21st century, spun harder with the influx of new labor. Mexico has risen by both leaps and bounds and inches and meters, as its nibbling at Central America has shown. To its north, in the Great Desert that cuts through it and the United States, outposts are being established in conflict with the Asian Union, who question whether the Mexicans have any claim on these areas. Well into American territory the Mexican and Asian flags fly and the Mexican army runs drills. There are murmurs that a new war may begin, a war to cement Mexico’s newfound strength and redraw the lines of North America. Looking south on all of this Canada has pushed forward a policy of drawing back from its commitments on the continent. Instead the Canadian navy sails across the warm northern seas to its new neighbors in the Siberia and Scandinavia, all the while arming itself in case any conflict seeps north into its lands.
In South America, the land has been through a number of immense changes across the century, the implosions of Peru and Venezuela being two of the most devastating. In their wake other powers moved in, among them a rising Bolivia and a resurgent (and corporatist) Colombia. To the east, is a resurgent Brazil, one now wary of its neighbors for their inaction during the chaotic years of global warming and population decline. Brazil is increasingly close with Africa as some of the more Northern reaches of South America, most notably the Caribbean. The Caribbean itself is largely the playground of Mexico, but within its shadow maneuver two regional powers, Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Both are powerful merchant states with sizable navies, and both of whom have a hand in the shipping lanes that go to and from the Americas. In 2150 it is nearly impossible to see a ship sailing the Pacific that does not fly the standard of Cuba and so to it is with the Atlantic and the Dominican Republic.

Where people look on worryingly in America about the thought of future conflict, in Russia, people recoil at the sight of current bloodshed. Russia is falling, in every way and on every front the nation is losing to breakaway republics, reasserted nationalisms, terrorists, and religious movements. The FSB regime, which has ruled the nation for over a hundred years is coming to an end, and while some might rejoice at the thought that the specter of Europe is dying, many of its cousins on the continent are worried. To the West is European Union, much engorged from its early years in the 20th century, while a vibrant spot on the continent, the European Union still bears the scars of conflicts former and present. The Spanish and Balkan Rebellions, and overall the complicated and oftentimes violent process of federalization has left a lot of the people wary of the European project. But with African support and and massive investments from the other former hyperpowers, Europe never truly lost its superpower status, with the common market remaining the massive engine of economic prosperity it always was. Further West one can look at the long cold remains of the European Union. Nationalist Pseudo-democracies in Europe have almost disappeared, the British Isles spun apart and England found itself under the dominion of India in less then a century, which has been a contentious topic between both India and Europe for a while. Scandinavia is still recovering from the damage done during its pogroms prior to federalization European Union, which were markedly bloodier than those on the rest of the continent. One particular place of note is Greenland, having left Denmark and the European Union, it benefited heavily from the global warming that hit the northern hemisphere, taking in millions of climate refugees. In about half a century, Greenland grew from a small population, to a an economic power of over 12 million people.
Africa, the crown jewel of Earth. The continent's resources and breakneck development in the 21st century has given rise to some of the richest and most developed nations of Earth, but has also led its internal borders to twist and turn and many nations to fall. Although in retrospect seen as the great winner in terms of climate change, African nations were some of the first to buckle under its stresses. In the midst of this tumult the African Union took center stage, spreading peacekeepers, repairing infrastructure, bringing food and water, and connecting the burgeoning yet also straining economies of the continent together under first a free trade area, then a currency union, then a united bank. Collectively the African Union and African Central Bank are the largest political and economic powers on the planet, dwarfing India, China, and America combined and when riled is the greatest military force on or off-planet. For the average person on the ordinary day however the realm of states and nations is still dominant, and in this realm there is only one master: The Congo. As time progressed the Congo, cleared of its internal issues, slowly but surely took over the heart of Africa, integrating states like the [other] Congo, Cameroon the Central African Republic and more. Congo does not dominate by way of population alone, but by their economic stranglehold on the rest of the continent. The state oversees the rail-lines of the continent and even owns sizable chunks of the rails of the Middle East, its conglomerates meanwhile have a hand in every energy venture in the hemisphere, and openly own the massive dams in the Congo which power a third of the continent. Although Africa herself sways back in forth under the motions of its great powers and coalitions it continues to move forward and grow. Caribbean nations join and Brazil moves further into the African sphere people begin to talk about the prospects of a Greater Africa, perhaps, someone says, they should move East into Asia.
Asia, is perhaps the only continent that could challenge collective African supremacy, were it not that they were even more fractured than the Africans. Both Chinese and Indian dreams for an Asian Union under their guidance came and went, and what remained was a continent bestridden by at least three superpowers. In this new Asia China and India still dominate, both expansive nations holding 2 billion people each, and between them two thirds of Asia’s population. The two have been at peace for 120 years, ever since the second Sino-Indian War ended and gave rise to the now passed Indian Era. Tension still abounds between the behemoths however, and in the wake of both of their failed bids for global hegemony they perpetually undermine each other from gaining the upper hand in Asia. As such, within their shadows lay the powers of Islamic Republican Federation and the Asian Pacific Union, which have both presented themselves as a “Third Way” and carved out their own spheres of influence. In the reformed Middle East, the Iranian lead Islamic Republican Federation stretches from Kazakhstan to Yemen under the call of a renewed “Islamic Universalist” ideology (Which just of course happens to include many states which are neither), but for the large part operates largely as a regional cabal to keep a stranglehold on Silk Road trade, which has reemerged as one of the major nexuses of the global economy. In reality the universal Islamist philosophy espoused by Iran convinces few people, considering it is built on the Shia tenants of Islam but is imposed on a lot of Sunnis. The Asia-Pacific Union has largely seized control of the former ASEAN nations, with a notable exception in the Philippines, which has emerged as the armed neutral and technological powerhouse of the region. Malaysia is no more, having collapsed under the weight of violent Salafism in the middle 21st century, to which Indonesia responded by restoring order, and then in many parts, simply never left. Asia-Pacific region were forced to band together increasingly in order to maintain their own independence as China and later India advanced, in a European Union-esque arrangement, with states on the US West Coast acceding to the union with which it had far greater economic and cultural ties than distant Washington DC. Over time, this union became more and more central and indivisible, taking advantage of e-democratic technologies and universal translation software. APU is headquartered in the Singapore arcology, which functions as the effective melting pot capital. Returning to the two Behemoths, China and India have, for the most part, grown at the expense of their neighbors and have found their nations transformed over the years both through technology and their striving for global power. Both are largely massive bureaucracies, in many ways modeled after older political philosophies, with India ruled largely by a union of governors, intellectuals, and the military, while China has established a Confucian state supported by a 100 million strong civil service and a continent sized AI network, building what many believe to be the first true Cyberocracy. Many of their neighbors have not fared so well. Myanmar, once viewed as the crossroads of South Asia is not expected to survive the century. Japan, while technically on the rise again after losing Hokkaido and bottoming out at 55 million people in the early 22nd century, is finding its membership not only to be a fact, but a necessity. Korean and Indonesian corporations move across the land, pitting faction against faction in the new Japanese government while calls for independence sound in Kyushu and northern Honshu, driven largely by the descendants of climate refugees that stormed the islands decades ago. The thought of Japan flying apart for a second time concerns the Asian-Pacific Union greatly, especially with China looming to the West. Far in the West of Asia, beyond the dominance of the Behemoths and Iran stands the a land of severed heads and political slogans written with blood. The fall of Syria made way for over three decades of collapsing governments, foreign invasions, Salafist and Apocalyptic cults and wars, rouge states, and at least one confirmed use of nuclear weapons during the fall of Israel. Out of this period, known as the "Alfk", or the "Unwinding", rose the The Federation of the Crescent. With Saudi Arabia's corrupt monarchy fell to the hands of its own military apparatus and Iran withdrawing within its own borders, the Arab Military had a decade to root out the last of the Ikhwan and then to slowly restore order northwards, edging forward slowly but surely until the whole of the middle east fell in its hands. It is still plagued with separatism, Islamic, Jewish and Christian apocalyptic movements, religions terrorism and violence, but the military regime has remained remarkably tolerant and brought much needed stability.

NPCs:
Turkey - Still here, still holding on, still having a problem with the Kurds, still walking a fine line between Islamic and Turkish identity - Regional Power
Kazakh Yeli - Neutral, pretty wealthy, but worried about its neighbors, especially Russia. - Regional Power
Russia - Collapsing quickly and violently. - Great Power
Mongolia - Still very much under China's domination - Small Nation
Argentina - Strongly neutral and closed off to the world, a deep green state with radical population control and environmental politics. - Small Nation
1. Marocco - Doesn't Like Africa - Small Nation
2. England - Indian Economic Puppet, English people name children Indian names for prestige purposes - Small Nation
3. Kalmykiya - Buddhist Caucasus nation, close to Africa out of necessity - Small Nation
4. Georgia - Just happy to have Russia off its back - Small Nation
5. Armenia - That enclave in former Azerbaijan is now a liability more then a sense of pride. - Small Nation
6. Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, Mari El, Chuvashia, Mordovia - European puppets and fuel depots, keeps Russia on it toes - Small Nations
7. Khakassia, Buryatia, Tuva, Altai - Chinese puppets and fuel depots, one of the few places where being Chinese still merits you respect - Small Nations
8. Oman - Iranian puppet, probably to be integrated with the Islamic Republic in the future. - Small Nation
9. Yemen - Indian peacekeepers brought the whole thing together and keep it together until today - Small Nation
10. Sindhustan - In another life named Pakistan, still Muslim but heavily de-politicized and watered down. - Regional Power
11. Afghanistan - Bustling high-rises, well ordered streets, Indian corporations - Great Power
12. Myanmar - A hellhole, with Chinese peacekeepers keeping it all together. - Small Nation
13. Vietnam - Doesn't like China, doesn't like the APU, doesn't Like India, just wants to trade and to be left alone. - Regional Power
14. Chile - Ran by the military, not happy with Bolivia right next door. - Great Power
15. Uruguay - a de-centralized country, has a a few Polistatic experiments coming to existence inside it. - Small Nation
16. Paraguay - A Bolivian puppet - Small Nation
17. Bolivia - With the collapse of Peru, Bolivia has grown massively and is looking to extend its tendrils further. - Great Power
18. Ecuador - stuck between a rock and a hard place, with Colombia and Bolivia breathing down its neck, can lurch either way - Regional Power
19. Colombia - A major corporatist nation slowly taking over former Grand Colombia, having annexed parts of Venezuela and puppeted what remains (two deep green states named Venezuela in the north and Canaima in the south). Looking to push into the Guyanas and Suriname, despite Brazil's unhappiness. - Great Power
20. Cuba and the Dominican Republic's mercentile republics sparr over dominance of the Caribbean. While the African Union looks on calmly from Haiti. - Two Regional Powers, several small states
21. Greenland - A regional economic power and a major melting pot. - Regional Power
22. Kurdistan - Allied to Europe and Africa out of necessity. - Regional Power