The section opens with an overview written by the historian and explorer Erin Tarn. It comes from Traversing Our Modern World, a collection of her letters, notes, and accounts from people who had spoken with her over roughly twenty years. Some of the correspondence was only three years old when the collection was assembled.
Despite Tarn’s reputation, she refused to write or officially endorse the volume herself. She believed there were simply too many gaps in her knowledge of the world to present it as complete. Nevertheless, the Council of Learning at the Free State of Lazlo considered the material valuable enough to publish.
The Coalition States had a considerably different opinion. Traversing Our Modern World became the number one outlawed book in Coalition territory, with several of Tarn’s other works also appearing among the twenty most forbidden books. The Coalition had recently gone so far as to denounce the sixty-three-year-old historian as both a criminal and a demonic influence. Her current whereabouts were unknown.
Tarn’s account describes the world around 100 P.A., using the Post-Apocalyptic Calendar.
Before examining individual regions, she explains something fundamental about Rifts Earth. Most of the world is wilderness. Towns, villages, and isolated outposts are scattered across enormous stretches of untamed land, while true cities are comparatively uncommon.
Political organization has also changed dramatically. Instead of the cities, states, provinces, and nations familiar to people of the twentieth century, civilization has largely returned to something resembling feudalism. Kingdoms have become commonplace.
Many of these kingdoms have a champion or protector. This individual is normally a powerful warrior and is frequently equipped with power armor or a giant robot vehicle. Men-at-arms are the most common champions, although mages, psychics, mutants, and even monsters can occupy the position.
When an outsider threatens the kingdom, the champion confronts the threat.
Sometimes a challenger seeking control of a kingdom can challenge its protector directly. The winner may gain control without armies tearing the settlement apart. These contests do not always end in death. Banishment or the destruction of the defeated champion’s primary weapons or power armor may be considered sufficient.
Other kingdoms refuse such contests. In those cases, the champion becomes the military leader and directs the community’s defenses.
The same idea has spread to smaller towns and villages. Unfortunately, placing tremendous authority in the hands of one powerful individual creates an obvious problem. A protector can become a tyrant.
Once that happens, ordinary people may have very few options. Assassination may be beyond both their abilities and their morals, leaving them dependent upon another powerful individual willing to challenge their ruler.
This is one reason Cyber-Knights have become such important figures throughout North America.
Tarn compares them to the Texas Rangers of the ancient American West, particularly the heroic image represented by the Lone Ranger and his companion. Cyber-Knights roam the continent confronting bandits, tyrants, supernatural evil, and other threats. Stories of lone knights entering insignificant settlements and overthrowing brutal champions or evil rulers number in the thousands.
They fight D-Bees and hostile mages, destroy bandits, battle dragons, and rarely ignore genuine pleas for assistance.
Interestingly, Tarn considers this wandering-hero tradition primarily a North American phenomenon, although she knows of Cyber-Knights who have traveled to South America, Atlantis, Europe, and Asia.
From there, she begins her survey of North America.
The first region is what people call the Northern Wastelands: Alaska, the Yukon Territory, Northwest Territories, Victoria Island, Newfoundland, and Greenland.
Tarn has never personally traveled that far north. Reports describe a frozen landscape of forest and ice containing relatively few humans, D-Bees, or demons.
What she questions is the word “wasteland.”
People frequently dismiss enormous wilderness regions simply because they are sparsely populated or poorly explored. Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Quebec are sometimes described the same way, despite the fact that humans and alien beings clearly live there.
For Tarn, calling a place a wasteland often means little more than admitting that nobody really knows what is there.
Old Canada presents a different picture.
Territories that were once among Canada’s more heavily populated regions have become enormous forests. Tarn finds the transformation encouraging. In only a few centuries, the natural world has reclaimed the remains of civilization.
But humans are not the only intelligent inhabitants.
Alien life has established itself throughout the wilderness. Tarn personally encountered Xiticix insect warriors as far north as Hudson Bay in Manitoba, and reports indicate that Xiticix scouts have traveled into Saskatchewan.
Alberta and Saskatchewan are particularly important because of magic.
Ley lines run throughout the mountains and prairies, and supernatural creatures frequently accompany them. Tarn considers the stories claiming that the Xiticix originally entered Earth through a Rift somewhere in Saskatchewan entirely plausible.
Stories from the region describe demons, dragons, and other creatures emerging from dimensional Rifts.
Calgary may be especially dangerous.
According to Tarn, the ruins of the old city are controlled by demonic forces. The region sits upon a major nexus point and appears to be surrounded by ley lines. The precise nature of what controls Calgary remains uncertain, but travelers treat the area with extreme caution.
Farther west, British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest are largely wilderness. Much of the old human civilization has disappeared beneath forests and other natural growth.
California presents one of the most dramatic examples of how thoroughly the Great Cataclysm changed the continent.
The old coastline and many of its cities were devastated. Earthquakes, flooding, and the upheavals associated with the coming of the Rifts destroyed enormous portions of civilization. Areas once occupied by millions of people are now wilderness.
Nature has reclaimed much of the western coast.
The interior western territories are also sparsely populated, but they are far from empty. Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico contain scattered communities, ruins, bandits, monsters, and independent groups.
Civilization exists, but centralized authority does not.
The farther one travels from the great kingdoms, the more survival depends upon individual strength, alliances, weapons, and whatever protection a community can provide for itself.
Then Tarn turns to Mexico.
Her knowledge of the region is limited, but what she has learned is disturbing.
Vampires are unquestionably present along the Rio Grande. Tarn knows this from personal experience.
During one encounter, a vampire recognized her by name and told her that if she continued spreading stories about the vampire kingdoms, she would die. Tarn survived only because her friend Tyrone, a Cyber-Knight of considerable reputation, intervened.
For years afterward, Tarn and Tyrone convinced themselves that the creature had simply been trying to frighten them.
Eventually, Tarn stopped believing that explanation.
There were too many unanswered questions.
Mexico apparently possessed a substantial human population, yet lacked the constant political upheaval found elsewhere. Where were its competing kingdoms? Where were its conquerors?
Tarn personally knew of at least three armed forces that had entered Mexico intending conquest. All three were capable forces.
Every one of them vanished.
None returned.
Even more troubling, Tarn had met people from virtually every corner of the world, yet could find nobody who had traveled deeply into the Mexican interior and returned with reliable information.
Victor Lazlo’s old writings made the mystery even more disturbing. He had identified ancient Aztec temples and pyramids as locations of powerful ley line nexus points.
Tarn began wondering whether those ancient sites might correspond to the rumored vampire cities.
Eventually Tyrone could no longer leave the question unanswered.
He organized an expedition into Mexico consisting of four Cyber-Knights, a cyborg, a Psi-Hound, and a Techno-Wizard. All were experienced adventurers.
Before departing, Tyrone promised Tarn that he would return with the answers they sought.
He never did.
More than twenty years had passed by the time Tarn wrote this account.
None of the expedition had ever returned.
Tarn next describes Wyoming.
The region consists largely of grasslands and dense forests, with faerie folk common throughout the territory. Tarn says the entire land seems to possess a feeling of magic even when no obvious supernatural forces are visible.
During her travels she visited the famous Medicine Wheel in the Big Horn Mountains, a location described centuries earlier by Victor Lazlo.
Remarkably, the site remained intact.
Her mystic guide identified it as a small nexus where three ley lines met. Magical energy could be detected there, although the usual blue-white glow of visible ley lines was absent.
Tarn and her companions camped nearby.
Three times during the night, everyone in the group awoke simultaneously, overwhelmed by fear.
Each time they found nothing.
Years later Tarn heard a story that may explain their experience.
During a summer solstice, energy supposedly erupted from the Medicine Wheel and opened a Rift. A gigantic laughing demon, more than thirty feet tall, partially emerged through the portal.
It never stepped completely into Earth.
It did not need to.
The creature leaned through the dimensional opening and attacked the people camped around the site, devouring humans and animals before eventually withdrawing.
Only three people survived.
Local legends also claim that “little people” inhabit caverns beneath the Medicine Wheel and feed upon bighorn sheep. Tarn finds this particularly fascinating because Victor Lazlo recorded essentially the same legend from the Shoshone people before the Great Cataclysm.
Montana and Idaho remain largely unexplored wilderness, consisting of forests, grasslands, and mountains. Tarn suspects that their proximity to magically active Wyoming and Alberta means they probably contain substantial mystic energy and non-human inhabitants as well.
Rumors also place the Cyber-Knight monastery somewhere in this region, under the legendary Coake. Unfortunately, Tarn notes that identical rumors place the monastery in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and numerous other locations.
The Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma form what Tarn calls the new frontier.
Although mostly wilderness, new human settlements are beginning to prosper. Cyber-Knights regularly travel through these territories, and many stories of their heroism originate among the small frontier communities.
Minnesota is another matter entirely.
For years, the region served as a haven for civilized people. Numerous small settlements and kingdoms pursued peace and learning. Some southern communities were exclusively human, while farther north humans and other races lived together.
Many of those mixed communities prospered.
That prosperity created resentment among neighboring human populations and made the Coalition States increasingly nervous.
By August of 101 P.A., Coalition forces were moving into Minnesota.
Dog Packs and Psi-Stalkers had been dispatched northward to conduct reconnaissance and search-and-destroy operations. Human troops patrolled the borders. Tarn believed the signs indicated that a full Coalition invasion was approaching, likely spearheaded by SAMAS troops and cyborgs.
The Coalition’s immediate obstacle would be Tolkeen, built upon the remains of Pre-Rifts Minneapolis.
Tolkeen is the largest and most powerful city in the area. It possesses substantial industry and an impressive magical community of Techno-Wizards, Line Walkers, psychics, and other mystics.
In Tarn’s estimation, only Lazlo surpasses Tolkeen in magical knowledge and scholarly pursuits.
Tolkeen also possesses an extraordinary strategic advantage.
The city rests directly upon an incredibly powerful ley line nexus and is surrounded by a network of nearly one hundred ley lines.
Despite that magical power, Tarn fears Tolkeen could not survive an all-out Coalition siege.
But another enemy may pose a much greater long-term threat.
The Xiticix.
These insectoid humanoids appeared roughly twenty years earlier and quickly earned a reputation as ferocious and merciless warriors. Their civilization appears similar in some respects to terrestrial bees. They live in enormous hive communities governed by queens.
They are aggressively intolerant of other humanoid races and violently defend their territory.
Their primary hive city is located near old Duluth, with smaller communities extending toward Winnipeg.
More disturbing is their apparent rate of expansion.
Xiticix scouting parties have already been reported in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
Many people fear their population is growing rapidly enough that they could eventually threaten intelligent life throughout the region.
Tarn even considers the possibility that Coalition expansion into Minnesota may partly be an attempt to eliminate the Xiticix before they become powerful enough to threaten the Coalition itself.
Finally, Tarn reaches the Coalition State of Chi-Town.
The Coalition States are an alliance of five industrial kingdoms that emerged after the Apocalypse. Their relationships vary. Some are closely allied, while others maintain looser ties.
Chi-Town is unquestionably the dominant member.
Tarn considers it the driving force behind the Coalition and describes its leaders as harboring ambitions of creating a political and military empire. She views Emperor Karl Prosek’s government as thoroughly corrupt.
Yet she cannot dismiss its power.
Chi-Town possesses the most formidable military and technological force in North America and perhaps in the entire world.
The Coalition State of Chi-Town encompasses northern Illinois and all of Iowa.
Iowa is predominantly agricultural, with roughly seventy percent of its territory devoted to farming and another thirty percent to livestock, particularly pigs and cattle. Small farming communities appear approximately every fifty miles, interrupted mainly by military bases.
SAMAS and sky-cycle patrols watch the skies while human troops and Dog Packs guard the borders.
Tarn estimates Iowa’s population at approximately 1.3 million.
Northern Illinois is entirely different.
It is the center of North American civilization.
Hundreds of towns and villages surround approximately a dozen large cities, each averaging around two hundred thousand inhabitants. Coalition military forces are visible everywhere.
What surprises Tarn is that despite decades of dictatorial government, the people seem largely content.
More troubling to her is the widespread acceptance of Coalition attitudes toward magic and non-humans. Human supremacy and hostility toward magic are not merely government policies. Much of the population appears to genuinely share those beliefs.
Tarn acknowledges that history plays a role. The people of Chi-Town have endured generations of conflict with supernatural creatures emerging from Rifts to the south, along with the Federation of Magic’s invasion in 12 P.A.
At the center of everything stands Chi-Town itself.
The fortress city is the seat of Coalition government, the center of its military, the source of its propaganda, and the home of Emperor Karl Prosek.
Approximately two million humans live inside.
Another three million live outside in the sprawling settlements known as the Burbs.
The Burbs stretch for miles around the fortress. Some resemble small cities with ten- and twelve-story buildings mixed among smaller homes. Others deteriorate into shantytowns composed of tents and makeshift shelters.
Many inhabitants are applicants hoping to become citizens of Chi-Town.
The waiting period is approximately six years.
They endure it because of the stories they have heard about the prosperity and security inside the fortress.
Many never make it.
Tarn reports that approximately twenty percent of the Burb population dies from disease or famine each year. Another fifteen percent falls victim to demons and D-Bees.
Crime is everywhere.
Body-Chop-Shops, gambling houses, street gangs, bandits, slavers, dangerous mystics, hostile psychics, malicious D-Bees, and supernatural predators operate throughout the settlements.
Dog Packs and Psi-Stalkers patrol the streets, while SAMAS troops and sky-cycles watch from above.
Their purpose, however, is not necessarily to protect the people living in the Burbs.
The Burbs are Chi-Town’s first line of defense.
Coalition forces are primarily concerned with preventing criminals, supernatural creatures, and other perceived threats from reaching the fortress itself.
The Burbs nevertheless function as a kind of free port. Travelers, adventurers, mercenaries, and people of many different races and philosophies pass through them.
Coalition prejudice remains powerful.
D-Bees, practitioners of magic, scholars, and psychics face open discrimination. Coalition authorities may simply ignore violence committed against them. Even murder may receive little investigation unless another person considered undesirable is suspected.
Tarn makes an interesting exception for Dog Packs.
She considers them among the most reliable protectors found in the Burbs. They take violence against humans seriously and are particularly aggressive when psychics, magic users, supernatural beings, or monsters are responsible.
Above everything towers the fortress of Chi-Town itself.
It rises approximately one thousand feet above the Burbs, an artificial mountain of concrete and steel.
Inside is an entirely different world.
The upper levels, beginning around levels twenty-three through thirty-five, belong to the upper-middle class and wealthy. Stores, entertainment centers, and parks make these areas attractive and comfortable.
The higher one travels, the greater the wealth.
Above level thirty-five live the extremely wealthy and political elite.
Level forty even contains a university and medical and scientific center. These facilities serve the elite portion of Coalition society permitted to receive formal education and full literacy, roughly twelve percent of the population.
Below them, levels twenty-two through four contain the lower-middle class and poor.
As one descends, Chi-Town becomes progressively older, poorer, and more dangerous.
These lower levels are the territory of City Rats, cyber-clinics, bargain shops, pawnshops, and the black market.
At the very bottom, the fortress begins to resemble the Burbs outside.
The lowest levels are filthy, corrupt, and dangerous.
The shining fortress of Chi-Town therefore contains the entire Coalition social order stacked vertically within a single city.
And Erin Tarn’s journey through North America is only beginning.