This brings the Big Easy up to the year my campaign begins, so this will be the last part of my quick and dirty overview of the history of New Orleans.
As always, there's a lot to say and I have both limited time and staff. We're going to be super brief in this episode, as a lot occurred that involved the Confederated States of America but not so much that affected New Orleans directly.
If, by chance, there's a part of the history you'd like me to drill down deeper into, please let me know in the comments and I can go back and give a little deeper perspective on any year or event. Given endless time, I'd love to detail the personalities, movers and shakers behind the scenes but for now, we're all about the big picture.
When last we left Our Fair City, it was churning out data, plans and material for Ares Apollo Program (To Infinity, and Beyond!!) had become a new hotbed for Simsense recording boosted by Combat Biking and was busy alternatively persecuting its metahuman minority and giving them hope, then dashing it again.
In 2029, the last of the Old World passed away when the Crash happened. New Orleans was hit hard, as it had become something of an internet hub. Ares Apollo station was infected by the Crash Virus and suffered catastrophic failure, killing everyone on board. A HSTC jet taking off from Louie Armstrong International airport also had a catastrophic failure due to the virus and slammed into the Esplanade mall, killing hundreds and reducing the two story structure to a burned out vacant and abandoned shell loved by ne'er do wells to this very day.
In the 2030's, the EuroWars kicked into high gear and the local economy, still smarting as the new Matrix was built, found another source of profit: weapons! The Caribbean League was still newly formed and was busy sorting out who was leading what by killing everyone who said otherwise, which meant guns. Suddenly everyone in Europe and some parts of the Middle East also started killing each other. Local corp Lyco systems and Universal Omnitech are the leaders in the field and both got a big kick in the pants in these years. There was some nasty Shadow work between the two for a bit in these early years.
In 2033, Big Daddy Nick, Nicholas Aurelius, father of Big Papa Ares, passed on to the great beyond. Ol' Nick was an old-school businessman who had, intentionally or unintentionally, done a lot for the Crescent City. His idea of using the entire rebuild of a badly damaged city as one giant PR move had paid quite the dividends over the years. However, his son Leonard was never quite the man his father was. He had taken over the helm of Ares back in 2023 and was slowly pulling out of the area when the Crash hit.
I know I just told you Leonard wasn't the man his dad was, but at least he kept the company afloat and rebuilding in the aftermath. However, when Ares restructured itself, it had willingly let its subsidiaries in the City and elsewhere go. You can call it timid, you can call it smart, but the point is the days of New Orleans being Ares-land were over.
After Ares up and left, we still had local players, but most of the corporate attention became focused on Atlanta and its rebuilt infrastructure and location. This corporate attention came to a head in 2034 when the CAS succeeded from the newly formed UCAS. New Orleans put a bid in to become the capitol, but decadence, profit and ghosts can't compete with megacorporate money.
However, a new nation needs new troops and new troops means weapons and that means money. New nations also need oil and biochemicals and medical supplies, all of which New Orleans was set up to supply. The Port of New Orleans quickly became the busy port in the CAS, sitting as it does right on the Gulf of Aztlan (locals still call it the Gulf of Mexico. They also still call themselves Americans. Gotta love brand loyalty). Given its position in a brand-spanking new nation, New Orleans began to really boom, even absent big corporate interests.
Aztlan and Texas had a series of scraps in the 2030's as well. Texas first seceded with the CAS, then when the CAS refused to help them fight Aztlan, they seceded from the CAS, then when the Azzies kicked their hoops, they joined right back up. Sharing a border with Texas (both land and sea) opened up some wonderful trade opportunities (legal and illegal).
In 2036, the CAS held elections for the first time, both nationally and locally. Anyone hopeful that the old New Orleans way of doing things would change quickly realized how wrong they were when a startling 96% of elected officials retained their seats. Some things never change, but that stability is good for business.
In 2036, a fringe group of local Shamans calling itself the Green Scale Lodge began a campaign of terror against megacorporate interests that were befouling the bayous and the delta along with the Gulf. Their actions lead to several heavily damaged oil derricks being abandoned and a severe drop of levels of pollution in some portions of the local wetland. People are still afraid of pristine swampland near the city as the Lodge and its followers aren't exactly friendly and the cleaner the land, the meaner the things that live in it, both people and otherwise. Of course, the uglier the land, the more likely you are to run into crazy toxic shamans, so it's a loose loose proposition to leave the city.
Of course, New Orleans is neck deep in voodoo and, though the numbers are hard to come by, seems to lead at least the CAS if not all of North America in the body trade, so it's also dangerous to stay on the concrete.
Speaking of the body trade, sometime in the 2030s or 2040s (exact dates are impossible to pin down for these things) a group calling itself Rougarou started taking over the human trafficking trade. Think of them as a little local version of Tamanous and you'll have a good idea. Please don't confuse them with the Loop Garou, a local manifestation of HMHVV that tends to infect Trolls. One wants to sell your meat to the highest bidder, the other just wants to eat you.
Since we're talking crime, La Dame Du Morte, Donna Miriam Kozlowski, came to power in the local Mafia at this time. She took over after her mother died. Miriam's rule has reinvigorated the Mafia and led to them reclaiming some business from the other, smaller local gangs like the Zobop Krews. Luckily, everyone involved seems to realize that making money is more important that killing each other and her reign has been fairly stable so far. Don't be fooled, though. She came by her nickname, the Lady of Death, honestly. Cross her and she'll write your name in the dead-book faster than you can blink.
In 2037, commercial Simsense came on the scene and the Big Easy was ready for it. Sure, Nashville made some noise but the years of experience dealing with Combat Biking and the infrastructure still in place made New Orleans such an attractive location for Simsense production that Nashville never had much of a shot. Today, if you want to deal with the music biz in the CAS you head to Nashville, you want to deal with the Simsense you head to New Orleans.
This further strengthened New Orleans identity as a party town and when the first Super Bowl since 2030 was held in 2038, New Orleans won the rights and the first live trideo broacast with simsense feeds from Seretech-Tulane Stadium.
Racial tensions finally erupted around the world in 2039 in the Nights of Rage. Between February 7th and 10th, riots and violence breaks out across the globe. Parts of Atlanta, Charlotte, Jacksonville, Mobile, New Orleans and several other cities burn. In New Orleans, metahumans either lived on the abandoned outskirts of the city or in debased conditions inside of it. Years of prejudice, unfair treatment, resentment and hate all broke loose. By this time, the New Orleans Police was fully incorporated and private, having been rechristened the New Orleans Police Service, Inc. and as such they didn't even attempt to stock kid gloves anymore. The police response was incredibly violent. In the first hours of the conflict, police force was used to keep protesters out of the Central Business District and French Quarter, but after the initial standoff, police forces forced the protesters into an abandoned theme park on the outside of town. Somehow, a fire started and several hundred metahumans, mainly Orks, died in the fire. Today, the locals call it "Funland" and while it's still a hangout for the desperate, spirits that remember the night of rage make sure no humans step foot inside.
Later that same year, CAS Senate hearings find shocking evidence of metahumans living in conditions equivalent to slavery. This Senate report, the Findings of the Ethical Committee on the Treatment of (Meta)Humans, is a watershed moment for racial equality. Moving forward from this point, treatment of Metahumans is given great attention and generally improves. On the other hand, it forces the racists out of hiding and some of them form policlubs or local Humanist chapters, rather than give up their old ways. This change in attitude happens very quickly, thanks to heavy pressure from the Native American Nations and their trade sanctions that threatened to cripple parts of the CAS's economy. This embargo means the 2040 World Combat Biker Championship is cancelled, the only Championship to never happen.
Other political repercussions include the formation of the Democratic Reform Party, which broke away from the Southern Democratic Party in response to their lack of action during the Nights of Rage. However, the Southern Conservatives gain control of the Senate in that year's elections, but newly elected CAS President Joseph Alexander and his new Veep, Jeanette Mallory, appoint several metahumans to key cabinet positions in their new administration. This move finally convinces the NAN to lift sanctions and the new metahuman voice in power goes a long way to changing how metahumans are viewed and treated in the CAS.
A local genetech company called New Horizons and its CEO, Paul Louberge, are placed under investigation for genetic experiments on metahuman children. Louberge escapes justice for his atrocities when he commits suicide after the results of the investigation are leaked to local media before he can take the stand before the Senate. Parts of New Horizons and its unethical research are gobbled up by other genetech corps in the area like Shiawase, Universal Omnitech and Seretech, but of course they would never dream of profiting from such awful research, right?
Later that same year, a ghost of a metahuman killed during the Nights of Rage leads the police to her murderer, the serial killer Benjamin Harvey. Harvey had been killing metas for years, but used the nights of rage to really ramp up his work. With the new focus on metahuman rights and with the police willing to work with one of his "victims" he was soon caught. This case created legal waves for years to come.
By the way, in 2042, the Roman Catholic Church finally catches up with the Church of St. Jude and welcomes women into the priesthood.
In 2048, Aztlan attempts to nationalize all foreign companies operating in its borders. The Corporate Court strikes back with Operation Reciprocity. The fallout sees the Panama canal turned into the Pan-Corporate Zone, under control of seven different Megas, Aztlan not included. New Orleans position near the newly stabilized canal cements its place as the busiest port in the CAS.
Racial tensions again rocked the CAS in 2050, when thousands marched in Atlanta, demanding increased awareness of metahuman rights. Citizens of New Orleans begin to feel slightly better about coming in second for the race to be the new capitol of the CAS.
In 2052, Biotech hit the market and New Orleans, long a center of Biotech research, gains national attention. Once again, the money flows in.
In August of 2053, Hurricane Elthbert was all set to come and ruin everyone's day, but suddenly turned and raced up the eastern seaboard to savage New York. The Green Scale Lodge is the first to claim responsibility, followed by about a dozen other groups. No proof is ever submitted. People who remember Katrina back in 2005 become assured at the very least that God has a sense of humour.
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