June/July '19 Lite Challenge: The Appalachian Remnants

[GreatWhiteNorth]

In a future approaching sooner than we know, the countries of North America are shattered by war. Left to pick through the dross of once-prosperous communities, hastily constructed states vie for control of the few remaining natural resources and recycled history. Near-constant skirmishes replaced total war - for a time. Recovering knowledge and materials have led to a rapid arms race by the more powerful states, and the desire for even the slightest edge has pushed science to the brink.

Dr Harlan McAuld, a military scientist for the Appalachian Federation, felt this pressure as he developed a superweapon: genetically enhanced soldiers, their existing anatomy augmented through a symbiosis with a newly discovered fungus - a human mycorrhizae. This symbiosis gave the soldiers enhanced senses, strength, and intelligence, all while sapping their inhibitions and fear. Soon, though, the relationship revealed itself to be more parasite than symbiosis. Dr. McAuld, on the verge of shuttering his experiment, makes a seemingly innocuous mistake, letting the Symbiots, and the fungus itself, into the world. The Appalachian Federation soon succumbed to its own creation and the remaining nations were forced to respond to this growing threat.

Symbiot attacks, infectious spores, and their own shifting political alliances once again threaten the survival of the people of North America. Can they survive in spite of their differences, or will a new species begin its slow takeover of Earth?


That's the blurb anyway. This is gonna be a piece of Firefly style cartography, which I've never done before, so let's see how it turns out!

Here's the basemap:


###Latest WIP###
TheAppalachianRemnants_WIP1.png

[Greason Wolfe]

Cool, but is it intentionally spelled "Remants" or is it supposed to be Remnants?

[Bogie]

Cool map! Great backstory! Welcome to the challenge!

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Nope, spelling error. Glad I got the dumb mistake out of they way early

[GreatWhiteNorth]

No legend yet, but the color gradient from yellow to red represents attacks by Symbiots over the course of three years of this outbreak. The purple dots represent effectively quarantined areas - the only true safe zones in the American East.

### Latest WIP ###
TheAppalachianRemnants_WIP2.png

Edit: Please disregard my awful spelling errors. I will be checking over the map more completely when it's ready for its final version.

[GodofMoxie]

Looking cool, very nice map idea.

[Bogie]

Coming along nicely. speaking of spelling errors I fixed the "Latest WIP" tag. It needed spaces between the Hashtags and the letters.

[Adfor]

Being originally from Appalachia, I find so much investment in a different aspect of this area, such cool work. The idea behind this is hauntingly real, and seems a plausible future, even if fiction-based.

Cheers!

IR

[GreatWhiteNorth]

Almost ready to call this one finished. I might make some small edits, like enlarging the urban areas to show growth, but overall I'm very pleased with how it came out!

### Latest WIP ###
The-Appalachian-Remnants_WIP3.png

[GodofMoxie]

Looks great, with the dip in activity on the chart at the bottom what time of year does attacks die down? winter?