Fallout: Charleston
War. War never changes. When the images of the dried up Texas oil fields reached households across the United States, it revealed how severe the energy crisis had become. As their smaller nations were driven into bankruptcy, the European Commonwealth declared war on the Middle East for the rise in oil prices. The conflict became known as the Resource War.
The following year a socially transmitted plague spread across the United States and killed tens of thousands of people. The United States officially closed its borders, and it wasn’t long before they set Project Safehouse into motion. The project - funded by junk bonds - was designed to create shelters called Vaults designed by Vault-Tec for the populace to reside in the event of a nuclear war or deadly plague. Construction began in 2054 and proceeded rapidly.
As a part of the preparations for Project Safehouse, the United States began production of MREs, financed medical research, and ramped up recruitment and training efforts in the Southeast Commonwealth. These preparations also included the construction of Vaults designed to survive in the wetlands of the local environments. Vaults 43, 58, 84, 99, and 110 were commissioned immediately, with more vaults planned for construction.
In 2077, the new year brings with it gas prices of $7450.99 per gallon. On October 23rd at 9:17 AM NORAD confirmed the launch of ICBMs. By 9:47 AM the entire United States had been bombarded with nuclear warheads. Those lucky enough made it to the safety of nuclear shelters, like the Vault-Tec Vaults, before the detonations. Those outside who managed to survive were left with a scorched wasteland, where radiation began to mutate plants, animals, and humans alike.
One nuclear warhead malfunctioned in flight, causing it to drop and detonate in the Atlantic ocean east of Charleston. The initial shockwave devastated most of the area, and was immediately followed by a tidal wave of partially irradiated water. Shortly after, a fog of irradiated vapor settled over the area. As the waters drained back into the ocean, much of the radiation permeated into the marshes.
After a couple of decades, the survivors of Charleston slowly began to make their way out into the wastelands. A little over 210 years later they had established multiple settlements throughout the area. One of the earliest settlements was Battery City, founded by the survivors of Vault 43 equipped with a GECK, and became the central hub for trade in the area.
The area is now split under the control of a few factions who would hope to call the abundant sources of food, medicine, and military equipment their own.
Remnants of the United States Armed Forces (USAF) attempt to reign the area in under a stratocracy that they hope will give way to a democratic republic. They struggle to maintain control of the area but have fortified themselves in a few key locations. They are led by Colonel Leslie Stackhouse out of Joint Base Charleston, west of Charleston International Airport.
The Confederated Southeast Settlements (CSS) have formed a confederated republic composed of Senators from its settlements under the leadership of Sovereign Isaak Adams. Adams has expanded the CSS influence on the heels of the USAF’s retreat. With Sovereign Adams at the helm, the CSS has set up a fortified position in ‘del Mall and holds a majority of the area west of Charleston.
The traders and “unaffiliated” people of Charleston look to Mayor Nick Penn of Sullivan’s Hideout as an example of autonomy in the area. The walls of the old war fort provide protection from both the elements and external forces, and have allowed the people of Sullivan’s Hideout to exist out from under the thumb of both the USAF and the CSS.
Mayor Carla Chapin of Battery City is in a much more difficult position, as the city is positioned in the middle of the USAF/CSS conflict, and relies on their relationship with Sullivan’s Hideout to help protect trade routes.
All of that is far away from the settlers of Palm Island. A smaller fishing and clam farming community, the settlement is located on the far east edge of Pleasant Sands. The citizens of Palm Island live in relative peace as the “end of the line” for a lot of traders making the routes to trade supplies for food; however, the marshes surrounding the town have become a breeding ground for a variety of dangerous creatures. Something is causing the wildlife to become much more aggressive and bold in their interactions with the farmers and fishermen.
Charleston, SC
King Charles II granted the chartered Province of Carolina to eight of his loyal friends, known as the Lords Proprietors, on March 24, 1663. In 1670, Governor William Sayle arranged for several shiploads of settlers from Bermuda and Barbados. These settlers established what was then called Charles Town at Albemarle Point, on the west bank of the Ashley River, a few miles northwest of the pre-War city center. Charles Town became the first comprehensively planned town in the Thirteen Colonies
Delegates for the Continental Congress were elected in 1774, and South Carolina declared its independence from Britain on the steps of the Exchange. The British attacked the settlement three times, assuming that the settlement had a large base of Loyalists who would rally to their cause once given some military support. The loyalty of white Southerners towards the Crown had largely been forfeited, however, by British legal cases and military tactics that promised the emancipation of slaves owned by Patriot planters; these efforts did, however, unsurprisingly win the allegiance of thousands of Black Loyalists.
The Battle of Sullivan's Island saw the British fail to capture a partially constructed palmetto palisade from Col. Moultrie's militia regiment on June 28, 1776. The Liberty Flag used by Moultrie's men formed the basis of the later South Carolina flag, and the victory's anniversary continues to be commemorated as Carolina Day.
Between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War, Charleston experienced an economic boom, at least for the top strata of society. The expansion of cotton as a cash crop in the South both led to huge wealth for a small segment of society and funded impressive architecture and culture but also escalated the importance of slaves and led to greater and greater restrictions on Black Charlestonians.
Although Columbia had replaced it as the state capital in 1788, Charleston became even more prosperous as Eli Whitney's 1793 invention of the cotton gin sped the processing of the crop over 50 times. Britain's Industrial Revolution—initially built upon its textile industry—took up the extra production ravenously and cotton became Charleston's major export commodity in the 19th century. The Bank of South Carolina, the second-oldest building in the nation to be constructed as a bank, was established in 1798; branches of the First and Second Bank of the United States were also located in Charleston in 1800 and 1817.
Charleston played a major part in the Civil War. As a pivotal city, both the Union and Confederate Armies vied for power. The war ended mere months after the Union forces took control of Charleston. Not only did the Civil War end not long after Charleston's surrender, but the Civil War began there.
After the defeat of the Confederacy, federal forces remained in Charleston during Reconstruction. The war had shattered the city's prosperity, but the population surged as freedmen moved from the countryside to the major city. They purchased dogs, guns, liquor, and better clothes — all previously banned — and ceased yielding the sidewalks to whites. Many were educated and practiced skilled crafts; they quickly became leaders of South Carolina's Republican Party and its legislators. Men who had been free people of color before the war comprised 26% of those elected to state and federal office in South Carolina from 1868 to 1876.
Charleston languished economically for several decades in the 20th century, though the large federal military presence in the region helped to shore up the city's economy. Charleston's tourism boom began in earnest following the publication of Albert Simons and Samuel Lapham's Architecture of Charleston in the 1920s. Before the Great War, "Battery Park" was a tourist destination famous for its stately, mainly antebellum homes. In the years leading up to the Great War, Charleston underwent a new economic boom as federal resources poured into the area. Charleston had become a hub of medical research, military training and equipment manufacturing, and production of MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat) by the Super-Pack Co. which relocated its headquarters to Charleston but maintained a manufacturing presence in Mullins, SC.