Sacramentan Empire

## Senate and People of Sacramento

> *"It is by the legends of history that we will survive; not the folly of novel fairytales and imaginations." —* First Consul of the Internal, **Paulus Alexandrinus** (prev. *Saul Marquez*)
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The **Sacramentan Empire** (officially known as the **Senate and People of Sacramento** or otherwise the **Sacramentan Republic**) is a major post-Impact state that has arisen from the bowels of California and its Great Valley region. Originating from the ruined city and previous capital of the state of California, Sacramento, it was founded by the unusual partnership between the ancient history professor Saul Marquez and the Sacramento warlord Josiah Harrison in 2035 due to the former's attained pre-Impact wealth. Marquez, conferring his ideal vision of a new order for a new world under a banner reminiscent of the ancient Roman polities, funded Harrison's previous gang outfit and retooled it into a proper fighting force that led to the unification of the looter-gangs and survivors within Sacramento's city limits. This lead to the official founding of the city-state of Sacramento under a diarchic system that would persist to the present day, spearheading the rise of the most powerful country on the old American Western Seaboard.

Militarily, the Sacramentan Empire boasts the largest fielded armed force in the Western United States, with the Exercitus Sacramentus approximating to around three hundred thousand legionnaires, sailors, airmen, and auxiliaries. This military force has been brought to bear against multitudes of tribes, gangs, and nomads that plagued the Great Valley and surrounding Sierra Nevada and Coast mountain ranges, blossoming in size from the incorporation of such groups through martial or diplomatic conquest. Currently, the armies of Sacramento march on the Republic of the Bay and Silicon Valley while simultaneously manning frontier outposts in the Sierra Nevada and Klamath mountains against Nevadan and Oregonian tribal excursions.

## Etymology

The popular name of the country (i.e *Sacramentan Empire*) is considered a misnomer, as Sacramento itself does not officially consider the nation an empire in the traditional sense of being ruled by an autocratic *emperor*. However, it has retained this name informally due to the various peoples that it rules over in addition to its assimilatory properties and imperialistic ambitions.

Its official name as the *Senate and People of Sacramento* draws from the political power of the Sacramentan Senate and its effective embodiment of the wishes of the denizens of the city.

## History

### Background

Following the Anthropocene Impactor in February of 2023, all vestiges of Federal and state governmental control collapsed within the State of California. Sacramento, having served as the state capital of California until 2021, had by this point been rendered a second-rate city due to many people fleeing urban zones for more rural expanses following the Nicholls Event. However, the massive waves raised by the asteroid impact flooded deep into the Central Valley of California, submerging the surface of Sacramento under several meter-tall waves for days until their evaporation and recession back into the Pacific Ocean.

This flooding, in addition to the blast wave from the asteroid impact, contributed to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of thousands across the Central Valley, including Sacramento. The city's remaining population had either died or escaped to safety after the effects of the asteroid, particularly to the surviving nearby settlement of Roseville.

After the collapse of government authority and presence in 2023 and the recession of the flood, the Central Valley became rife with roaming gangs of survivors that looted standing structures. However, Roseville's survival allowed its population to naturally flow back into the remains of Sacramento, repopulating the ruins of the city with masses of vagrants, survivors, and ne'er-do-wells.

### Gang Rule

The city slowly, but surely, became the battleground for many differing gangs and criminal groups that sought to take slices of the area for their own enterprises. In 2029, Josiah Harrison arrived with his gang of fifty men in eastern Sacramento, uprooting a drug gang's territory through a brutal turf war. With a base in the more stable (but still crime-ridden) Roseville, Harrison slowly expanded his territory in Sacramento through bargains, wars, and individual acts of diplomacy and goodwill to paint a better image of himself to the nearby people. His involvement in funneling cigarettes and alcohol into the city raised the warlord enough funds to grow his organization in numbers, formally creating the Harrison Syndicate by 2033.

During this time, Josiah was approached by a survivor by the name of Saul Marquez. Saul had been a professor of ancient history at the California State University's Sacramento campus when the Nicholls Event occurred; following this, he had relocated to a settlement known as Summit Village, east of Roseville, and had only returned to Sacramento in what he described as a "dream of prophecy" to meet a strongman and bring the dream of peace to reality. Harrison initially dismissed Marquez as just another nutjob, but Marquez had offered his present influence within the land east of Sacramento - thanks to his post-apocalyptic investment into trade - as a bonus to the offer later on. Harrison accepted the "partnership" with Marquez, who he initially sought to manipulate.

### The Dual-Dictatorship of Sacramento

Harrison, shortly after accepting this deal with Marquez, had become subject to a massive gang war by 2034 with an alliance of Hispanic syndicates of Mexican origin that came into the region from the south, brutally taking over South Sacramento and cutting off agricultural flow from the south. This brought several gangs together, including Harrison's own; with his power, he announced a counteroffensive against the Hispanic gangs that led to the deaths of hundreds. Marquez, in the meanwhile, moved independent of Harrison and cemented his trade power with northern Sacramentans and other communities affected by the cutoff, with his imports of food from his contacts in Carson City building a massively positive reputation of the man in the process. Harrison was aware of this independent power growth, but Marquez's assurance of loyalty through a massive purchase of armaments for Harrison's own forces quelled this fear for a time.

After winning this massive turf war and expelling the Hispanic gangs south towards the nearby ruins of Laguna, Marquez met with Harrison and gave a new proposal: the formation of a city-state, in which Marquez would forgo all foreign policies and approaches to Harrison in exchange for control of the city's domestic policies and commerce, endowing Harrison with a flat fifty percent cut. However, a key caveat of this would be that Marquez would also be in control of the organization of all organizations of Sacramento that Harrison did not directly control, including the government of the city-state itself. Harrison, being more entertained with the notion of conquest and the permanent expulsion of the gangs he had disdain for, agreed.

In 2035, Harrison's syndicate - which had grown to number in the thousands - changed overnight. He summoned the key captains and lieutenants of the organization and allowed Marquez to establish new customs and aesthetics for the organization, remodeling ranks and policies based on the ancient Roman Empire and Republic. Rechristened into the Legion of Sacramento, their first charge was to march on Laguna and exterminate the remnants of the gangs they threw out only months prior.

### Rise of the Republic

The dictatorship that ruled over Sacramento did not last long, as under Marquez the entire city came under the rule of one central government, chiefly headed by Marquez due to his deal with Harrison. He declared himself the first Consul of the Interior and organized what would become the first session of the Senatus Sacramentus through the appointment of senators. These senators were mainly leaders of gangs that were absorbed under the Legion of Sacramento, but also included popular and powerful merchants. Marquez rechristened himself as *Paulus Alexandrinus* soon after...

## Geography

The current borders of the Sacramentan Empire lie mostly within and outside of what was once the state California. As such, the Sacramentans control the bulk of arable land in the Southwest, and use the leftover agricultural infrastructure to maintain its large population and armies.

### Cities and settlements

#### City of Sacramento

The city of Sacramento currently serves as both the capital and largest settlement of the Empire with a current population of 390,000 across its urban zones. The Senate administers the country from the repurposed remnants of the Californian State Capitol (now known as the *Curia Paulia*), which sits in the heart of downtown Sacramento. The city receives water from the California and American rivers, and the bulk of land-based trade is conducted towards the city through the old **Interstate 5** and **Interstate 80** in addition to the smaller **Highway 50.** It is one of the most developed cities on the west coast following the Impact, and maintains multiple municipal services such as a fire department, police force, and hospital system. Sacramento is well known for its surrounding scrap metal and brick Sacramentan Walls, which encapsulates the central urban zones and parts of West Sacramento over the Sacramento River and thus serves as a defensive fortification for the city, armed with machinegun nests and various arrow/gun slits.

## Society and culture

### Language

The official languages of Sacramento are dually English and Spanish, with Latin only being reserved for official document usage due to its complexity in teaching to the average citizen.

### Religion

Officially, the Sacramentan Empire has consecrated a novel denomination of Christianity as its state religion known as Sacramentan Orthodoxy. This denomination originates from the Eastern Orthodox beliefs of the first Internal Consul, Alexandrinus, but has mutated over time to more closely resemble the pre-Impact aesthetics and theology of Roman Catholicism from absorbed populations. Even so, it maintains an autocephalous church structure with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Sacramento being considered *primus inter pares* (first among equals).

Despite Sacramentan Orthodoxy being the religion of the state, the Empire does not seek to enforce the religion beyond mandating senators, magistrates, and consuls be of the faith. Beyond the borders of the city of Sacramento lies a plethora of religions under the banner of the Sacramentan Empire, ranging from true Roman Catholicism to Protestant denominations of Christianity, new age post-Impact religions, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism (amongst others in significantly smaller quantities).

However, in recent times with the Mormon diaspora gaining power on the frontier and in tribes proximal to the Utah Dead Zone, the Sacramentan Empire has enacted harsh restrictions for believers of Mormonism. These include heavy taxes and, in certain cases, outright enslavement for Mormon tribals in the Sierra Nevada.

## Government and politics

### Central government

The central government of the Sacramentan Empire is split into three components: the executive tendencies of the consuls, the legislative functions of the Senate, and the judicial reviews of the Court of Magistrates. Portions of the government system draw obvious parallels to the functionality of the ancient Roman Republic, but also parallel the old trappings of the United States federal government.

In the executive portion of government reigns the two Consuls. The Consul of the Interior and Consul of the Exterior are both elected by the Senate to serve for one year (unless cases call for the declaration of a twin dictatorship). The *Interior Consul* is delegated the responsibilities of maintaining all domestic operations for the Empire, including internal economics, bureaucracy, and issues, in addition to the source of logistics for the military. The *Exterior Consul* is delegated the responsibilities of maintaining all external operations for the Empire, including military campaigns, diplomacy, and the establishment of trade with foreign entities.

### Provincial government

Each territory, apart from the capital city of Sacramento, is either under a civilian administration headed by a *proconsul* or a military administration headed by a *propraetorial legate*.

## Military

The armed forces of the Sacramentan Empire are organized under the Exercitus Sacramentus, which combines the army, navy, and air forces beneath a structured high command. The commander-in-chief of the military is the Exterior Consul, with the Interior Consul only having the responsibility of logistics management from within Imperial borders. However, the seniormost officer position of the Sacramentan military is known as the *magister militum* (t. "master of the troops"); three current *magistri militum* exist commanding each separate branch of the armed forces.

The current size of the military is around three hundred thousand active troops, with theoretical capabilities of expanding to around a million men (or around **⅕** the size of the Imperial population). However, a significant amount of these active and reserve forces are *auxiliaries* raised from subordinated tribes and gangs to serve in mainly defensive and garrison capacities, with a core of professional *legionnaires* serving in offensive capacities and in special forces.

### Army

The Sacramentan army, known officially as the *Legiones Sacramentas* (t. Legions of Sacramento), is the largest branch of the Imperial military with a serving force of 270,000. Of this population, approximately 180,000 are classified as auxiliaries, with the portion of 90,000 being considered professional legionnaires.

Most of the Sacramentan army is organized into individual *legions*, which are units composed of 5,000 legionnaires and 1,000 auxiliaries for a total force of 6,000. These legions are commanded by a *legatus* that report to either the *magister militum* of the army of the Exterior Consul directly, and can serve in defensive or offensive capacities - such as defending the frontier or marching into enemy territory. Eighteen legions currently exist, with the 162,000 remaining auxiliaries serving in garrisons and outposts across Imperial territory as a police and defense force.

Auxiliaries in the army mainly serve in support roles, such as manning artillery, serving in the medical corps, manning logistics trains, and aiding in communication. Some auxiliaries, however, also serve in scouting, pathfinding, and recce roles. In contrast, legionnaires serve mainly frontline roles, and either serve in infantry, motorized, or (rarely) mechanized formations. They are also considered for fielding in special forces attached to each legion.

In the terms of technology and equipment, the Sacramentan army uses a mixture of scavenged pre-Impact vehicles and materiel in addition to improvised weapons and armor, with veteran forces often receiving the former. Although more technologically regressed than nearby Federal remnants and specific polities due to its large size, it is nevertheless a potent fighting force that focuses on employment of strategic and tactical decisions in addition to "strength in numbers".

### Navy

The Sacramentan navy, or the *Navis Sacramenta* (t. Navy of Sacramento) is the second largest branch of the Imperial military with a force of twenty nine thousand. It also has the largest legionnaire-to-auxiliary ratio, with twenty thousand troops considered to be legionnaires versus that of nine thousand auxiliaries. Functioning in both brown and green water capacities, the Sacramentan navy is charged with the patrol and defense of the coastal and riverine areas of the country, protecting maritime trade in the process. It also serves in an offensive capacity through the fielding of artillery and transport barges for marine invasions and shelling of enemy targets from the sea or rivers.

Auxiliaries assigned to the navy are given support tasks such as serving as medics, patrolcraft crew, and guarding naval installations. Legionnaires on the other hand serve as either marines (*marinus,* pl. *marini*), as crew on large vessels, and also as naval installation guardsmen. Marines are specifically tasked with the abilities to board enemy vessels or to serve as infantry in marine invasions, and are considered one of the most veteran troops in the Empire (apart from *praetorians* and *cataphracts*).

### Air Force

The Sacramentan air force (officially the *Classis Aeria Sacramenta*, t. Air Fleet of Sacramento) is the most novel of the three branches of the Imperial military, with the first restored Cessna 172 entering military service in 2066 as originally a transport for officers. However, the scavenging of new planes and helicopters (and their parts) has led to the growth of the Air Fleet into a force of fifteen propellercraft: thirteen Cessna 172s, one Cessna 182, and three Cessna 206s.

All current air force assets are attached to legions or fielded on various impromptu/remnant airbases throughout the Californian interior. However, the decision to split the Air Fleet from army command was decided upon in order for "flexible rotation of assets for naval and terrestrial duties"; however, news of distant nations such as the Confederation of the Gulf Coast and the nearby powerful Aztlán Empire having their own (comparatively) large air forces has urged the military to consider a large-scale scavenging and production programme for a dedicated air force.

Currently, the Sacramentan Air Fleet has one hundred pilots in rotation or training in addition to an auxiliary support and guarding force of around nine hundred troops, with these forces independent of army command.

## Trade and economy

### Slavery

Sacramento serves as one of the largest slave markets in North America, with both the state and private entities opting to purchase them for servile use as domestic servants, laborers, and other duties. Mainly sourced from conquered territories or from captured prisoners of war and criminals, slaves can also arise as a form of criminal punishment or as a voluntary form of debt bondage. With the exception of those in debt bondage, slaves are considered the property of their owners and simultaneously offered basic human rights, with slave abuse being in itself criminal. Even so, some slaves nevertheless serve in precarious positions, such as gladiators. They fuel the Sacramentan economy through being an effectively wage-free workforce that aids in the plethora of infrastructure and construction projects that the Empire has undertaken in its restoration of Sacramento and throughout its owned territories.