Alaska

Alaska: land of green forests, black gold, and Red and White Russians. The Russian Civil War continues in Alaska—as it does sporadically across Mother Russia—fought by refugees battling over Alaskan resources. (Highly prized are the large deposits of crude oil discovered by the Russians in the early 1930s.) The American Alaskans, once tolerant enough to accept Russian settlers, have lately started fighting both sides, advertising for mercenaries, to be paid in gold, land, or shares.

The Native Inuit, Eskimo, and Aleutian tribes just stand back and try to survive the crossfire. Of course, with an oil war raging, the Imperial Japanese are a growing presence in the southern areas of the region, offering technical assistance and dangling offers of military aid to the White Russians and Americans. The Whites are happy to have the aid, but the Americans are less needy and more wary.

Alaska is sparsely settled and considerably more primitive than the bulk of the United States' remnants. Running water, electricity, radio and telephone communication is rare and—where present—functions poorly.

The harsh terrain and relatively low population has made Alaska a useful staging area for pirate groups preying on Canadian and Russian territory and shipping.

Because of the small number of people living in the territory, Alaska has no central governing body; the various small settlements scattered throughout the territory have their own laws (much like frontier towns of America's Old West). In general, decisions are made by concerned citizens in grassroots town meetings.

Perhaps the largest, most civilized settlement is Anchorage. Anchorage's denizens are mostly subsistence Inuit fishermen, American prospectors and Canadian fur trappers. Anchorage's government, a loose representative democracy, is led by "Judge" Kevin Collins. Collins—a former Texan—forged order in Anchorage through force of will... and force of arms. As a result, most of the pirates, smugglers, and thieves that populate the Alaskan wilderness treat Anchorage as neutral territory.