Working on a map for a homebrew TTRPG I'm doing with some friends that takes place in Fallout New Vegas/Wasteland 3-inspired post-apocalyptic and post-global warming Northern California.
The Sierra Madre Republic is an American-style representative Democracy with theocratic tendencies, especially among the poor and middle classes. The history of pre and post-war California has been blended together, turning General Bidwell into a pseudo-Moses figure leading the first citizens of the Republic through the desert after the "Sundering" and blending the Mayor of Chico, a woman by the name of Mary with Our Lady of Guadalupe. This has created a strong belief in manifest destiny, which they call 'The Rightious Task" as well as a deep religious hatred of slavery, and "Communism". This often times leads them to be in conflict with many of the ultra-wealthy barons, who while don't want to upset the "mining/scaving" trade on the inland sea by doing something like conquering the Scaver kingdoms of the south which are based off the copper mining states of the European Bronze Age and have enormous slave populations. It also puts them at odds with the tribal and often non-tribal peoples outside of the republic who don't feel they much need to be civilized or don't want to have to pay taxes to Chico.
The Red is a state based out of Redding that strictly adheres to "Communism" which is a gnostic religion that believes in collective ownership of the land by the State and the Party so as to prevent the proletariat from being poisoned by the allure of the material world. There is an ongoing crisis in the Party, as the natalist rhetoric that has been the norm since conflicts with the SMR began about 50 years prior contends with an emerging heresy that harkens back to the words of the Chairman Carlos Marx II "Why would you bring more Children into a world like this?"
