Video Game / After the End: A Post-Apocalyptic America

After the End: A Post-Apocalyptic America Mod is a Game Mod series for Crusader Kings II and Crusader Kings III, in the former set in North America, and in the latter, in the enterity of the Americas. In the far-distant future, centuries after the general collapse of society, the people of the American continent have begun to rebuild their disconnected societies into something approaching civilization. However, quite a lot has changed in six centuries: The nations of the old world are nothing more than legends, and the surviving societies have had more than enough time to form their own identities and cultural and religious traditions. The whole continent now resembles the Middle Ages, with a feudal system, knights and castles.

The original version of After the End went into hiatus in early 2018. However, a group of fans has revived the project as After the End Fan Fork, which is available via the Steam Workshop and on a Paradox Interactive Forum thread dedicated to discussion of Fan Fork.

The legacy version of the mod can be viewed from the original project's GitHub, which is also where the last build of the original mod can be downloaded as well. A stable build is also available (current version 0.8), though this version is not compatible with Patch 2.7.1. The Paradox Interactive Forum thread for the mod (registration required to view) is the place to go for discussion regarding the original After the End mod.

After the release of Crusader Kings III, the team behind the Fan Fork announced they were going to develop a version of the mod for Crusader Kings III and wrap up development on the Crusader Kings II version in the near future. This CK3 mod was released near the end of 2022, and it is currently available for download. The Crusader Kings 3 mod is different from the CK2 version, adapting to CK3's mechanics, adding new religions and a map spanning from Tierra del Fuego to Svalbard. The southern reaches of the map will include lore from the South America spin-off Sob o Anil. Additionally, another spinoff titled After the End: Eurasia is currently in development and focuses on Europe and West Asia. A spin-off for East Asia, After the End Orientalis, is also in development. Spin-offs for Australia and Africa were in development at one point, but they have slipped in inactivity. A prequel spin-off set immediately after the Event named Just After the End released in 2022, and the South American spin-off ''Sob o Anil' released in 2023.

There is also a non-canon fan made spinoff, with no relation to Fan Fork or its devs, taking place in Europe. It has its own tropes page here. (Please place any tropes related to the spinoff on its own page)

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In addition to tropes present in the base game, these mods provide examples of the following tropes:

After the End Mods

After the End: Fan Fork (Crusader Kings 2)

• Aerith and Bob: Because Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names, the majority of cultures tend to have this from a modern perspective. As a small sampling, the Yankees consider the "Thomas", "Balthasar", and "Xaltotun" to all be perfectly ordinary names for their sons, Southrons are as likey to name a child "Theophilus" as "Arthur", and Northlander girls' names include "Karen" and "Vammatar".
• After the End: Naturally. The exact nature of the event that brought about The End is deliberately left unspecified, but whatever it was, it was bad enough to knock progress back to the point where humanity (at least in the Americas) has only reached medieval level of development after six hundred years.
• All Hail the Great God Mickey!:
  • Veneration of Mickey Mouse himself gets alluded to the Tribe of the Mouse, which rules a chunk of Florida. (Indeed, Walt Disney World is still partially intact as a Great Work.)
  • The Americanists have taken the Founding Fathers of the United States to be gods who once walked among men, interpreting the many monuments and statues to them as temples and idols. Their entire religion is structured around the interpretation of documents such as the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Federalist Papers as esoteric religious texts.
  • The Sagrado Corazon faith venerates El Santo as an actual saint. Devotees take up the life and identity of a Masked Luchador to follow in his footsteps.
  • Patria Grande (replacing a religion named "Gracia Divina" in past versions) is a combination of the above and a political ideology. Worshiping a blend of Catholicism and nationalist nostalgia for Gran Colombia, its adherents also venerate Simón Bolívar and other heroes from Latin American history as Saints.
  • Occultists following the Lore of the Old Ones regard the writings of H. P. Lovecraft as sacred texts.
  • The revival of Norse paganism was not without some confusion; the pantheon includes Odin, Thor, Freyja, Paul Bunyan, and Heikki Lunta.
  • The Orientalists of Florida revere Arabian Nights characters such as Ali Baba and Aladdin as part of their distorted reproduction of the Islamic faith.
  • The Revelationists can be seen as this in relation to Christianity. The loss of knowledge on mainstream theological teachings leads to individual biblical stories and local folkloric practices completely overtaking the standard Christian teaching, creating a syncretic religion that maintains the "rural backwood town church" aesthetic while treating Jesus as a literal lamb, the burning bush as a distinctive deity, and the serpent being a benelovent being.
  • Two of the Trailwalker Gods are Roadrunner and the Sly Cyote.
• The Almighty Dollar: The Dollar itself is worshiped as a god by the Consumerist and Monetarist faiths, complete with treating surviving pre-Event currency like holy relics. And yes, they do actually call it the Almighty Dollar.
• Alternate History: The devs have mentioned that the After the End timeline began to deviate from our own some time after World War II.
• Americasia: Californian culture has absorbed a considerable amount of East Asian influence, from the prevalence of kimonos and Hanfu clothing styles to a very syncretic mystical religion based on the wisdom of revered gurus to a political structure with a figurehead Emperor reigning (but not ruling) over a collection of powerful and power-hungry warlords.
• Apocalypse Anarchy: Varies from region to region. Some areas, like the Holy Columbian Confederacy and the Caribbean Empire, have been united under a strong central authority bringing law and order, while others remain divided among pirate marauders, fragmented tribes, and the occasional Feudal Overlord looking to eke out an existence while surrounded by enemies.
• Apocalypse Cult: Several, with the variation that many of them think the Apocalypse has already happened and that they're living through it. Somewhat justified by the fact that the setting takes place after a massive cataclysm that wiped out civilization as we know it.
• Apocalypse Not: The base-game mechanics that allow you to improve the lives of the commoners are still present in this mod. As such, you can fill your post-apocalyptic kingdom with fully-upgraded hospitals and fully-upgraded great works that enhance its culture such as Great Cathedrals, Great Libraries, Grand Universities, and Magnificent Gardens. Combine this with Full Status of Women law, disallowed vassal wars, and a strong standing army and your realm will be a fairly good place to live.
• "Arabian Nights" Days: The three groups of post-Event Muslims treat this differently.
  • Mostly averted by the Traditionalists, descendants of Muslim populations in South America and the Midwest. They're pious, observant Muslims, and use Islamic names and titles, but they are also heavily influenced by the surrounding cultures.
  • Also averted by the Imamites, who owe as much of their culture to the Celestial Empire of California as their own ancestry. Like most Californians, they run their government as a Confucian-inspired bureaucracy, and can readily syncretize with the Pacific faiths.
  • Played straight by the Orientalists, who aren't descended from pre-Event Muslims at all. Rather, they're a religion founded by Shriners and other non-Muslim Orientalists who cobbled together "a distorted version of Islam" from biased sources and the nearby influence of Disneyland. They consider Arabian Nights a holy text and Aladdin a prophet in and of himself.
  • And, weirdly, replicated in a History Repeats way with the current version of Consumerism. Despite the fact that the two religions have nothing to do with each other, and, again, Islam still existing, the rise of Consumerism parallels that of Islam, with a charismatic Prophet and his followers engaging in conquest as well as special traits for the patrilineal descendants of the Prophet (corresponding to the Sayyid trait in the main game) and even the Companions of the Prophet.
• Authority in Name Only:
  • The Emperor of California starts the game as one. In theory, he rules all of California; in practice, the various Cali sub-factions are all completely autonomous, and the Emperor is purely a figurehead who only exercises any real control over a relatively small amount of territory.
  • The Americanists still "elect" their chosen positions like President or Joint Chief of Staff. But with the United States long gone, these are little more than symbolic titles for what some realms see as a perverse heresy. At least at the start of the game.
• Awakening the Sleeping Giant: When Americanists murdered the last member of Deitscherei's founding dynasty, they provoked the Anabaptists of Pennsylvania into abandoning their pacifist ways and going on a full war footing to seek revenge, culminating in them sacking Washington DC.
• Awesome Anachronistic Apparel:
  • Americanists, in an effort to emulate the Founding Fathers and heroes of old America, tend to don attire based on the 18th-19th Centuries.
  • The denizens of the Holy Columbian Confederacy, meanwhile, tend to mix up their generally medieval fashions with those of the Antebellum South, further driving home the influences of the old Confederate States of America.
  • Further west, Anglo characters may likely be found wearing stetsons and other Wild West trappings.
• Back from the Brink: Many real life minorities and religions, which only have a small presence, actually experienced a resurgence after the apocalypse. The Anabaptists Amish, Hutterites and Mennonites have banded and founded a large kingdom in Eastern Pennsylvania. The Native Americans broke free from their reservations, controlling large swathes of lands in the US and Canada, while in Mexico the Mayans and Aztecs have formed their own religions and kingdoms, the Caribbean Empire is controlled by Afro-syncretic religions liked Rastafarianism, the Haida (which in real life has a population of 18.000) conquered British Columbia and are a major contender for dominating the Pacific Northwest, among many other examples.
  • Americanism used to be spread until the Midwest, but centuries of conquest and in-fighting has limited it to the area around Virginia, where they are constantly under assault by Christians, Rust Cultists, and Occultists. A good player can make them rise again to predominance.
  • Nestorianism is a very unusual example, they are a small minority in the Middle East and few communities of the Assyrian diaspora in the US. Apparently, after the Event, the Nestorians became a sizeable power and briefly controlled Chicago, but they were defeated and back into the brink. They might spawn as a catholic heresy and grow again.
• Balkanize Me: The United States isn't the only nation that has effectively shattered after the Event. Canada and Mexico have also broken up along cultural lines, though a vestigial Mexico still survives.
  • While Brazil doesn't fully control the (off-map) central-west and Amazon regions, it's one of the very few nations to reunite after the event, so much so that their power can be felt wherever the Coffee Current goes.
  • Interestingly, Central America and the Caribbean have actually inverted the trope, with several nations coming together to form new, unified kingdoms and empires.
  • Averted as well with the United Kingdom, which over centuries has revived the British Empire and will attempt to reclaim their old colonies.
• Black Vikings: Even more prevalent than the original game, due to a few hundred years of North American interbreeding. Starting out the game, there are even the Ojibwe Vikings of Mille Lacs.
• Born in the Saddle: The Great Plains (or at least a large chunk to the northwest of Iowa and Nebraska) are dominated by competing clans of nomadic Horse Lords.
• Cain and Abel: Prince Barrington Stepping Razor murdered his older brother to become the sole child of the Caribbean Empress. Zolin Bello, a patrician of the republic of La Paz, also murdered his sister, though not before killing their parents, imprisoning her and fathering a bastard with her.
• Cargo Cult: The Rust Cultists of the old Rust Belt worship old machinery as the creation of a higher power but are incapable of operating most of it, due to equal measures of lost knowledge of their functions and the machines themselves being several centuries behind on their regular maintenance. The Atomicists, likewise, hold "the power of the Atom" in reverence without any real understanding of the scientific principles behind atomic theory; one of their holy artifacts is a giant metal "egg" which, according to lore, is destined to hatch a reincarnation of their god (and which savvy players will recognize is actually an unexploded atomic bomb). The Consumerists and Monetarists, meanwhile, are cargo cult economics taken to the logical extreme, treating the spending and saving (respectively) of wealth as rituals meant to invoke the favor of the Almighty Dollar in and of themselves.
• Church of Happyology: Alluded to by the Cetic Way of The Cowl, a philosophy that emphasizes ruthless ambition and gaining power by any means necessary. One of the Way's principal gurus is known as Hubbard.
• Commie Nazis: The Americanists conflate the Communists and Fascists of the distant past as agents of evil in opposition to the Founding Fathers, having lost all knowledge of the pre-Event political movements these names referred to.
• Cowboy: Western cultures have access to cowboy retinues, admittedly with horse archers rather than gunslingers. Some West Anglo characters even wear stetsons.
• Creator Cameo: Some of the developers make appearances as characters in the game.
• Deep South: Much of the South is dominated by the Holy Columbian Confederacy. In addition to being a Fantasy Counterpart Culture of the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire in the base game, the parallels to the ancient Confederate States of America (right down to using clothing and symbols attributed to it) are no coincidence either.
  • However, it carries a good amount of Irony, the Confederacy was founded by a black man and it is a relatively multicultural empire.
• Developer's Foresight: Since Pennsylvania has been taken over by the Amish, all place names are translated to Pennsylvania Dutch, at least while under the control of the Deitscherei.
  • Fan Fork added a Jewish ruler to a single county in New Jersey, and like the Deitscherei county names are turned into Yiddish versions. They cover everything from New York City to Philadelphia at least. Certain significant places like Chicago get them too, though you need a custom ruler or a successful Crusade in the area to even see them.
• Divided States of America: The United States is nothing more than a memory at this point, with most of its former constituents having developed their own local identities into unique national cultures. There is an included optional submod that allows reuniting the United States, but the resulting Empire of the United States only really covers the rough area of the Thirteen Colonies.
• Dirty Commies: While Communism as an ideology isn't represented, the Americanists and Consumerists regard Communism as some kind of sinister supernatural force, and the Russian invasion seems to imply strong cultural memories of the Red Scare; the confirmation text for the event is "Better dead than red!".
• Eagleland: Exaggerated, to the point that despite the collapse of the United States as a functioning nation the Americanists have turned their reverence for the Founding Fathers and other American icons into full-blown worship. Overall, it's presented too broadly for the whole thing to be labelled either Beautiful or Boorish; where individual characters fall depends, as with many other things, on the whims of the player and the game engine.
• Eldritch Abomination: Never unambiguously encountered, but they feature in a few of the religions.
  • The Occultists, the pagan lords of New England, revere the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, and Stephen King as holy books, and have painted a very grim theological picture of the universe and their place in it. Their special reform doctrine places a particular emphasis on fortune-telling and astrology, constantly reading portents to determine if the stars are right.
  • The original version of the Thelemics of England combine real-life Thelema with worship of "the Queen", described in an extended Shout-Out to A Study in Emerald as some kind of eldritch divinity who rules above the traditional Thelema deities. Their reform doctrine is all about war and Human Sacrifice, for the Queen ever thirsts for blood. This version of Thelema differs starkly from the real-life religion, which is partially why it was eventually replaced as the main religion of the English invader by Glorianism, a religion that more explicitly just worships Britain and associated concepts.
  • The Church of Starry Wisdom is a secret society that serves the same role to the two above faiths as satanism does to the Abrahamic faiths. It's a sect of Card Carrying Villains worshipping powers so vile that the followers of the Elder Gods and the Queen reject them.
• Emergency Authorirty: Most Catholic faiths not in communion with the Conclavist Holy See in St. Louis still attempt to follow pre-Event ecclesiastical protocols in the absence of a "legitimate" pope, to varying degrees. Until contact with Rome is re-established or a new papacy is recognized, these groups are instead led by whoever happens to be highest ranking religious official in the region.
• The Empire: The Holy Columbian Confederacy, at least compared to the tribes and feudal realms that surround it. California at its height, as well. It is possible to restore an "Empire of the United States", albeit covering the original Thirteen Colonies.
• Enemy Mine: Leonidas Royall, the founder of the Holy Columbian Confederacy, once tried to cement his empire's claim of being the true successor to the United States by conquering Washington, DC. His campaign ended up causing an unlikely alliance to form between the Americanists, the Pennsylvania Anabaptists, and the Occultists of New England, which defeated him and ended his expansions.
  • During the Green Sash Rebellion in California, the Gaians (matriarchial New Age nature worshippers), Alawiyya (radical militant Muslims), True Cross (anti-state Christians), and Atomicists (cultists who worship the Atom and baptize with radioactive water) all united in their struggle to overthrow the the Celestial Empire. This was despite the fact most of them also already hated one another for religious reasons, leading to much infighting even during the rebellion. The rebellion ended with mixed results: while the rebels were largely crushed, California lost its border regions to Gaians and Atomicists, and warlords soon took over real governance of the empire from the Celestial Emperor, leading to the divided situation at the starting date.
• Fandom Rivalry: In-universe, the Longhorns and Aggies aren't any friendlier in the post-apocalypse, actually starting at war with each other.
• Fan Sequel: The Fan Fork mod technically qualifies as one. While it uses the underlying code from the original mod, it is considered a derivative work independent of the original and is being developed by a different modding team since the original mod has been on hiatus for quite some time.
• Fantastic Catholicism:
  • Catholicism has experienced a massive surge in the American West, complete with a new Papacy in St. Louis and the revival of the Crusades. There's also two offshoots that refuse to acknowledge his authority as the "true" Pope: the Ursulines of Quebec, who have their own all-female clerical hierarchy, and the Cristeros of Mexico, who are led by a militant prelate in the absence of what they see as a legitimate pope. In Mexico, there also exists a splinter religion that evolved from devotions to the Sacred Heart and the veneration of saints that is hostile to the Cristeros, who see them as heretics. In South America, there's another sect, similar to but distinct from the Mexican Sagrado Corazón faith, in the form of "Patria Grande", which incorporates Latin American nationalism (this replaced a religion called "Gracia Divina"). Meanwhile, the Brazilian Empire largely follows Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, a real life schismatic Catholic sect in Brazil.
  • In the Holy Columbian Confederacy, the Evangelicals had long since coalesced into a council of bishops that serves as a Protestant counterweight to the Catholic Papacy as well as the religious center of the Old South. The same thing happens in Canada, where remnants of Anglicanism organize themselves headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. Canterbury, New Brunswick that is.
  • In California, Christianity is defined by its relationship to the overwhelming power of the Celestial Empire and its emperor. Nazarene submit to the Celestial Emperor and take part in Californian society. Meanwhile, its True Cross heresy rejects the authority of "Caesar" (the Celestial Emperor) and fought the empire alongside the other rebels during the Green Sash Rebellion.
  • Not to mention even more strange offshoots - like Revelationism (a Christianity-derived faith with such emphasis on strange/supernatural that it is regarded as pagan — Charismatics have many of the same ideas and influences, but remain close enough to the Christian norm to count as Evangelical heretics), Navegante (a Christian-derived faith whose emphasis on Biblical stories involving the sea has taken them closer to the Biblical Canaanites than most Christians), Neo-Gnosticism (Christian tradition mixed with Eastern influences from the West Coast) and Falling Star (unique to South America and barely considered Christian by anyone, worshipping a "fallen angel" that has come to defend humanity from God's wrath).
• Fantastic Racism: In the opening loading screen, one of the images is of a map made by, and for, The Holy Columbian Confederacy. It gives something of an insight of what they think about their neighbors, referring to other autonomous but Evangelical Southern nations on their borders as “Marches”, they refer to their Voudoun practicing neighbors to the west as “fetishists”, and the Revelationists of Tennesi as “Snakemen”. Downplayed in that these views seem to be based more off of religion than race, as the Confederacy itself is multicultural and rather tolerant.
• Fantasy Americana: While the game's set squarely in a post-apocalyptic America, a number of event chains are inspired by various bits of regional folk tales in keeping with the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane theme of the original game.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Empire of Brazil is this for Imperial China, with Brazil taking the role of China in the Crusader Kings II DLC Jade Dragon DLC. Both are extremely large, bureaucratic empires that act as hegemonic powers in their continents, are enormously wealthy through lucrative trade routes (The Silk Road and The Coffee Current) and have an established presence in the frontier via client states (Western Protectorate/Northern Captaincy). China is constantly raided by the Mongols and the Jurchen while Brazil is raided by the Gauchos and the Amazonians.
  • The Holy Columbian Confederacy manages to stand in for both the Holy Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire with a heavy dose of the Confederate States of America. The election mechanics mirror the HRE, while the structure of the Evangelical Church is more or less identical to the vanilla game's Orthodox Christianity.
  • The Empire of California resembles Japan during the Sengoku Period. The Empire is supposedly ruled by God-Emperor who has Authority in Name Only, ruling only a small territory (Sacramento/Kyoto) while the rest of the country is divided by warring states, the prevalence of kimonos and Hanfu clothing styles, and a syncretical yet mystical religions focused on the teachings of past gurus and reverence to the Emperor as a Physical God.
    • The Fan Fork mod's additions to California's lore have drawn less on Sengoku period Japan and more on Three Kingdoms period China, with references to a "Green Sash Uprising" led by a mysterious "General of Gaia" being one of the causes of the collapse of Imperial authority, akin to the Yellow Turban Rebellion by Zhang Jue and his co-conspirators.
• Feudal Future: As in the base game, the game mechanics are based on a simplified version of feudalism.
• Foreign Culture Fetish: The so-called "Neomoor" culture is not actually Moorish at all. They're a mixture of Floridians whose ancestors were so enamored by Disneyfied tales of the Middle East that, with Arabian Nights and the Shriners as their guides, they adopted it for their own.
• From Cataclysm to Myth: The very nature of the Event that brought about the End is so shrouded in myth that there are multiple versions of the story in-universe, each ascribing a different root cause to the total collapse of civilization.
• Future Imperfect: A great deal of knowledge was lost after The Event. Most knowledge of what American society was like has been lost, to the point where sports teams are assumed to have been famous warrior bands and the Founding Fathers are worshipped by some as gods who once walked among men. One possible "heresy" that can emerge is even a corrupted form of consumerism claiming that the Event was due to people not giving enough reverence to the "Almighty Dollar". Subverted however with the British and Russians, who are at least aware that their ancestors did establish colonies on the continent centuries earlier and are intent on reclaiming them.
  • Averted to a degree in the case of Catholics and more traditional Muslim sects. Although much knowledge was lost from before the Event, there's enough for them to know that places like Rome and Mecca existed across the Atlantic.
  • The Trailwalker faith adhered to by some in the Midwest and Prairies incorporates a distorted memory of the settling of the Wild West. With the Event being the result of the "Spirit of the West" being unhappy with the Range being defiled.
• God-Emperor/God Empress:
  • The Cetic Californians worship their emperors as one of the chief Gurus, but this doesn't mean that they actually obey them.
  • The British have adopted a religion based partly on the philosophy of Aleister Crowley, except the Queen is the main object of worship.
  • Similarly, the Japanese worship their "Undying Emperor", who we're told withdrew from public view for meditation and refuses all contact. This was six centuries ago, around the same time as the Event.
• Great Offscreen War: Many past military conflicts, some recent and others ancient, have set the stage for the current setting. These include:
  • The wars of conquest that led to the foundation of California, New England, and the Holy Columbian Confederacy.
  • The wars between the Anabaptists and Americanists, which led to a sack of Washington DC and the Anabaptists abandoning their pacifism.
  • Albert Soady's long, bloody career as a Viking raider, where even kings were sacrificed to Odin.
  • The rivalry between Hudsonia and the Occultists of New England, which has led to many wars and conflicts in the past. Hudsonia was founded when Ellis Rodham led an army north from NYC and freed the entire state of New York from the Mahonics. There's also Zadok Mahonic's military campaign a couple centuries later, wherein he attempted to reconquer Hudsonia and restore his kingdom's prestige, but was defeated and killed at the Battle of Saratoga Springs, directly leading to the series of wars and dynastic conflicts that broke apart New England and reduced the Mahonics' holdings to just the Boston metro area. Comments in the code also show that Hudsonia deliberately encouraged and provoked this instability, often by assassinating rulers who were doing too good a job at holding things together.
  • One was supposed to happen in the game proper but didn't end up implemented. When the game leads up to the Russians arriving, they were supposed to get into a war with a powerful Inuit kingdom that ruled Alaska, which is beyond the reach of the map. The winner would head south and invade the playable area.
  • In-universe, some speculate that one of these may have been behind the cause of the Event, though no one really knows for sure.
• Gold Digger: Duchess Anastasia Josias of the Inner Banks has an event chain that can end with her killing the empress of the Holy Columbian Confederacy, marrying the widowed emperor, and disabling him to become his regent. As consort regent, she can declare herself the rightful Empress and go to war against her husband to claim the throne. If she wins this war, she becomes the first ruling empress of the Holy Columbian Confederacy and gains the special "Heartbreaker" bloodline.
• Grim Up North: The northern portion of the continent is by and large less developed, and full of fierce tribes and nomads.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: The Anabaptists benefit from an increased demesne limit and a huge bonus to vassal opinion. While these might not seem as exciting as some other religious perks, they allow Anabaptist rulers to field and fund massive armies, as well as invest in province development, from a rock-solid leadership position. Anabaptist Hudsonia usually ends up the defensive juggernaut of the Northeast.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs:
  • Followers of Peyotism (a.k.a. the Native American Church, prevalent among the Great Plains nomads and other Midwestern tribals) use peyote in their religious rites.
  • The Men in Black have access to "Ultra", a powerful hallucinogen (implied to be left over from pre-Event experiments into mind control) which they similarly use in order to obtain insights into hidden knowledge, though at the risk of a potentially stat-penalizing "bad trip".
• Historical In-Joke: Loads, some with the implication that History Repeats.
  • The Archbishop of Canterbury, New Brunswick is one Thomas Beckett, who is fortunate enough to be independent of any troublesome kings.
  • The first, legendary emperor of California is known as Norton, a reference to Joshua Norton, California's best beloved madman and would-be monarch.^note Indeed, a careful look at the dates reveals that it is the same Norton, whose legend has been passed down Future Imperfect-style from generation to generation. It's also probably a tongue-in-cheek nod to the base game's tendency to include quasi-historical legendary figures in its own history files.
  • In the republic of Cartagena, the Barca family has produced a remarkable military leader named Aníbal.
  • Dodge City is ruled by a man named Wyatt Masterson, a name honoring two of the city's most famous resident gunslingers.
  • Game mechanics and various incidental references seem to imply that the Catholics were once part of the broader Evangelical coalition before splitting off and going their own way under a restored Papacy, essentially repeating the East-West Schism.^note The Fan Fork (as of this writing) has the Evangelical Patriarch of St. Louis accepting the mantle of Pope from his predecessor and converting to Catholicism, taking much of the Midwest with him. The original mod was a little more ambiguous about who exactly split from whom.
  • The leader of Little Egypt is one King Ramsays, celebrating one of the most notable Egyptian Pharaohs.He also shares a first name with aa certain Corsican.
  • Versailles (the name of the famous French palace) exists as a county, and its flag is a yellow fleur-de-lys on a blue background, one of the most famous signs of France.
  • The adjectival short form for the Men in Black is "Redacted".
  • Several titles in Fan Fork have "legendary" figures from the past as holders in the title histories, including:
    • Louis Riel, President of The Provisional Government of Saskatchewan who was hanged for leading a First Nations rebellion in Canada, as Duke of Saskatchewan.
    • Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanche and first leader of the entire Comanche Nation, as King of Comancheria.
    • Thatahánka Íyotake, the legendary Sioux chieftain better known by his English name “Sitting Bull”, as King of Lakotah.
    • Leif Erikson, the Viking explorer who landed in "Vinland" (possibly Newfoundland) is King of Newfoundland.
    • The House of Hapsburg works in some appearances as the first Emperors of Brazil and as Emperors of Mexico.
    • The current rulers of rump Mexico in the 1.2 patch are the House of Paelo y Lagos, a reference to the last dynasty of the Byzantine Empire.
    • The Empire of Mexico has the original Emperor Iturbide, Emperor Maximillian, and the Aztec royal house as the first holders of that title. Similarly, the cultural empire of the Quechua is the Incan Empire, complete with the banner and history of all the Sapa Incas.
    • The first, legendary Pope is 666-year-old Petrus Romanus, a reference to The Prophecy of the Popes, which claims that the Antichrist would become the final Pope and take the name of Petrus Romanus.
    • Huey Long, the "dictator of Louisiana", is King of Louisiana.
  • Laurence de Graff, the fearsome pirate, rules off the coast of Newfoundland, his Acadien culture being a reference to the French colony that he served.
  • In the Fan Fork, the Iroquoian Duke Hiawatha Onondaga rules a part of old New York.
  • Ada Lovelace is married to the Protector-General of Brazil at the beginning of the game.
  • The House of de Braganca ruling Brazil, including the name Pedro, is directly taken from the first Empire of Brazil.
  • The Hong Konger woman in the court of Gran Francisco bears the name Zhu Yijun, the personal name of the Wanli Emperor who saw the steady collapse of the Ming dynasty, in a similarly chaotic Celestial Empire of California.
  • The adjectival short form of the county of The James is Jacobite, in reference to the Jacobite movement to restore King James II and the House of Stuart.
  • Bismarck, North Dakota is ruled by an Evangelical Amerodeutsch (German-American) Count named Otto Markie. The flag of the Duchy of Bismarck also bears more than a passing resemblance to the Reichskriegsflagge.
  • The Aphites ("heretical" Atomicists) are one big nod to the concept of long-time nuclear waste warnings. This is not a place of honor, indeed.
• Hollywood Voodoo: Mostly averted; scrupulous attention has been paid to representing the Voodoo religion in Haiti and Louisiana correctly, though as with all in-game religions certain aspects have been simplified for the sake of game mechanics. You can zombify living prisoners to make them more obedient, but the process takes a serious toll on the victim's health, and all Voodoo practitioners disapprove of your hiring a bokor to perform black magic.
• Hordes from the East:
  • Britain and Russia have sent invasion fleets to North America to reclaim their old colonial territory.
  • Inverted with Brazil, which is a Horde from the South. It also has to deal with its own hordes in the form of the Amazonians and the Gauchos respectively.
• Horny Vikings: In another case of Future Imperfect exaggerating local stereotypes into a full-blown cultural shift, the western shores of the Great Lakes are populated by Norse revivalists who have embraced both the old pantheon and the Viking lifestyle.
• Human Sacrifice: Pagan warrior societies have revived the old practice of and sacrificing enemies to the gods.
  • The Norse revivalists of the Great Lakes retain the blót festivals and associated sacrifices from the vanilla game.
  • The reformation system adapted from the Holy Fury expansion for the vanilla game allows other pagans and reformable Native American religions to do this with the "Bloodthirsty Gods" doctrine.
• I Know Madden Kombat: Over hundreds of years, the remnants of various sports teams evolved into actual mercenary bands. Military helmets also incorporate face masks obviously derived from the helmets of American football teams.
• Injun Country: Available in 7 main flavors: the Catholic Comanche in Texas and Oklahoma; the rest of the Plains Indians, following the Peyotist faith in the Great Plains; the Haida, in British Colombia and Washington; the Mormon Navajo, Hopi, and Apache in southern Utah/northern Arizona; the Cetic Paiute in Western Nevada; various First Nations in eastern Canada, who practice Midewiwin; and the recently added Tlingit in eastern Alaska following a syncretic version of Russian Orthodoxy.
• Interfaith Smoothie:
  • The "Druidism" of Northwest Canada combines Celtic paganism with the religions of the Innu and Inuit peoples of the region.
  • The cult of the Falling Star is a syncretic mix of the shamanism of the native Miskito people and the Moravian church which became a major part of the Miskito people’s culture when missionaries arrived. The Moravian church can be restored through an event chain, however.
• Jidaigeki: California's political set-up is based on a mix of this era and Three Kingdoms-era China, with a powerless figurehead emperor in Sacramento, and five warring kingdoms (Gran Francisco, The Valley, Jefferson, Socal and Baja) that only pay lip-service to him while constantly warring for actual control. In backstory provided by flavour text in the game over screens, California's backstory is described as being akin to the Sengoku period, a long period of constant civil war between numerous feudal lords vying for power, with Emperor Elton the Lawgiver playing a role similar to Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
• Language Drift: Some events imply that present-day English is effectively a dead language and must be studied as such by scholars.
• Last of His Kind:
  • In the current dev build, the chief of Boston is Paul Mahonic, the last living member of the House of Mahonic, founders of New England and a dynasty that once ruled everything from Buffalo to New Brunswick under the rulership of the legendary Vincent Mahonic.
  • Colonel Ellis Clinton of Connecticut is, at the game's start date, the only living direct male-line descendant of King Ellis of Hudsonia, and thus the only living member of the Rodham bloodline.
• Lost Technology: The Rust Cultists venerate ancient tech and can undergo expeditions to try and find Pre-Fall technology. Characters of any religion can discover old technology, but only the Rust Cultists actively search for it.
• Lovecraft Country: New England has become the centre of a new Occultist religious movement that takes a number of cues from the works of H. P. Lovecraft.
• Mad Scientist: The Ivy League is a society filled with these, who base their work on misinterpretations of modern sciences like physics, chemistry, and psychology. Given the nature of the setting, their experiments mostly consist of trying to recreate ancient feats, such as using "standardized tests" to predict a child's future, creating "antidepressants" using assorted natural ingredients, or even trying to manufacture new handguns.
• Martial Pacifist: Anabaptism has mechanics that encourage its adherents to be this. A currently existing religion in real life, it has embraced the version of it practiced by such pacifist groups in Pennsylvania as the Amish and Mennonites (and having Bethlehem as a holy site suggests a merger with the Moravian Church). Those who follow it can't start holy wars or force tributary status, but there's nothing stopping them from winning a defensive war or pursuing claims. As for why they're not Actual Pacifist, well, see Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
• Masked Luchador: Followers of El Santo can become masked luchadores and have the option of challenging one another to unmasking matches. The Sagrado Corazon faith also has a holy order of El Santo devotees, mask-wearing knights known as La Orden de la Mascara (The Order of the Mask).
• Matriarchy:
  • In contrast to how most of the rest of post-apocalyptic America favors male succession, the Gaians of the Pacific Northwest tend to favor female succession because they believe that the Event was caused by the men screwing things up. They view the ideal as an Enlightened Matriarchy, but given the game engine on the whole ensures that individual women can get the same traits (positive and negative) as individual men, the net result is somewhere between Original Matriarchy and Patriarchy Flip.
  • The Ursulines also have a matriarchal clergy, though plenty of feudal holdings under their sway are still under male-preference (or at least gender-equal) succession.
• Mayincatec: The Hollywood History aspect is averted. Since The Event, the Pre-Columbian Civilizations of Mexico had a bit of a resurgence, but faiths descended from Mayan and Aztec traditions are distinct, and have different mechanics. Additionally, both are divided between those that maintain strong Christian influences and those that try to emulate the pre-Christian faiths entirely.
• Medieval Stasis: Downplayed. The mod uses the base game's technology system, so technology does advance as time passes, but aside from a few rare artifacts that can be recovered from old ruins, society can't progress beyond the equivalent of the early Renaissance.
• The Men in Black: A secretive order that can be founded by Americanists based on corrupted memories of the FBI and CIA that serves as a prototypical State Sec (and, in game terms, corresponds to The Hashshashin of the base game). Members engage in such shady and underhanded dealings as assassinations, targeted abductions, secretly intimidating rulers into giving them "favors", and getting high on the order's secret stash of "Ultra".
• Modern Mayincatec Empire: Downplayed. They hardly form a single empire (or, for that matter, a unified religious or cultural bloc), and calling them "modern" is a bit odd in the context of the broader setting, but a number of Mesoamerican societies both survived and revived many of their ancient beliefs.
  • The Mayans now control the Yucatan peninsula under one state and their revived religion of Neomayanism^note which is not a total revival of old Mayan religion, but also mixed with neopagans, hippies and alien watchers, while their "high god" Hunab Ku is a deity invented by Spanish colonists to better integrate Mayan natives into Christian life.. Some Mayans also follow the older Uahomche religion, which is a syncretic religion that puts the old Mayan deities as "angels" of the Christian God, ironically, Uahomche preserves old Mayan religion better than the newer Neomayan counterparts.
  • The Aztecs now live mostly divided between warring kingdoms and religions, as well fighting the Mexicans up the north who prefer the Sagrado Corazón cult of saints. The majority of Aztecs follow the Mictlantec religion, a revival of old Aztec religions where Death god Mictlantecuhtli took the mantle of sun god after Huitzilopochtli was killed due the lack of sacrifices while stopping the Apocalypse.
  • Some Mesoamericans in Oxaca developed the religion of Jurihiata Ikikunari (Untamed Sun), mixing Mictlantec and Catholicism in a monotheist religion worshipping the sun goddess Eréndira in her fight against the Dark Father. The religion was previously known as Sol Invicta before version 1.0.
• Name That Unfolds Like Lotus Blossom: The Popes of the reformed papacy do not take on the names of saints like their predecessors in Rome, but instead, they seem to have gone the way of the Puritans, taking names like Praised-Be, Blessed-Be, and Hallelujah.
• Only in Florida: Much of Florida is controlled by a tribe that worships Mickey Mouse, and another part by another cult that merges together the Shriners' Oriental trappings and, yes, Disney's Aladdin to create their own... unique vision of Islam.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • The British and Brazilian invasions replace the invasions of the Ilkhanate and Golden Horde from the base game. Later updates include similar invasions by the Russians and Japanese from the west similar to the Aztecs in Sunset Invasion.
  • For Brazil itself, they have to constantly deal with the Gauchos and the Amazonians, who come from areas outside of their boundaries.
• Pirate: There's an entire religion centered around The Golden Age of Piracy, most active in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
• Politically Correct History: In-Universe, the Holy Columbian Confederacy is either unaware of the racial issues of its pre-Event predecessor (the Confederate States of America) or has deliberately adopted a more egalitarian philosophy while still appealing to the past to legitimize its existence. In any event, many of its lords are black and it's common for a black lord to be elected emperor.
• Pragmatic Villainy: If the player character is in the Banker's Guild and at war, you may get an event where they don't receive their annual banking money due to the ongoing conflict. Regardless of their traits, the player character will simply respond "war is hell".
• Pro Wrestling Is Real: Devotees of El Santo don't bother with things like Kayfabe or scripting matches, they just get in the ring and beat the hell out of each other for real.
• Public Domain Artifact: Parodied. The Ursulines of Canada have a stand-in for the Holy Grail. Namely, the Chalice of Saint Stanley.
• Radiation-Induced Superpowers:
  • The Atomicists seek to invoke this trope, as they deliberately expose their young to still-radioactive nuclear fuel rods in order to receive the "Blessing of the Atom". This runs a small risk of tainting them with radiation poisoning for life, lowering some of their stats, but a successful ritual boosts the character's opinion with other Atomicists.
  • The Aphites, who are considered "heretics" by other Atomicists, by contrast, see it as their duty to protect any place or object touched by the Atom precisely because of how dangerous it could be. It's implied that they're descended from those tasked with warning future generations of nuclear waste.
• Ragnarök Proofing: Mostly averted; as the Rust Cult can attest, most machinery has long since degraded to the point of being non-functional. Certain small artifacts can be recovered, but the events involved mention that that's due in part to some careful restoration work done by scholars and expert tinkers. Played straight with firearms, however, as each one is apparently found with an infinite supply of ammunition that hasn't degraded.
• The Remnant: A handful of realms still claim some sort of legitimate succession to the old United States, by that point mythic. Mexico to the south still survives as a rump state centered on Mexico City and its surroundings; it even has a unique government called "Ancien Regime" that imitates the old centralized system of the PRI government, the party that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: In the backstory, the murder of the last member of the Kingdom of Deitscherei in Pennsylvania's founding dynasty by Americanists provoked the kingdom as a whole to embark on one of these, ending in a brutal sack of Washington, D.C. This also serves to explain why the Anabaptists are no longer Actual Pacifists in this universe.
• Ruins of the Modern Age: Present to a greater or lesser degree in different areas. Some cities seem to be nothing but burned-out husks of their pre-Event selves, while other areas are relatively intact. The Fan Fork mod includes some modifiers and Great Works for noteworthy sites that survived, such as the still-standing Capitol Building, or Disney World.
• Sadly Mythtaken: The Revelationist faith is a form of backwoods Christianity that has essentially evolved into a distinct religion after a few hundred years of isolation, forgoing the holy trinity in favour of such divine emanations as the Burning Bush and the Serpentine God.
  • The Founding Fathers and Carl Sagan would certainly want to talk with Americanist and Cetic followers.
• Sequel Escalation: The Fan Fork features this by design, as it was created specifically to incorporate content from subsequent Crusader Kings II updates after the mod's main branch went dormant.
• Shout-Out: Chock-full of little "easter eggs" that serve as references to other media. See the Shout Out page for details.
• Shown Their Work: There are tons of examples, given all the regional references, and fairly detailed geography. But one of particular interesting note linguistically is that, at least when the Dietscherei is in control of Pennsylvania, all the place names, down to city and town names, are translated to Pennsylvania Dutch.
• Shrouded in Myth: This is generally the fate of any pre-Event person or group that gets directly referenced. In particular, the Americanists have elevated the former Presidents and Founding Fathers to literal godhood, with their deeds blown up to mythic proportions. For instance, according to them Theodore Roosevelt didn't just commission the Panama Canal — he built it himself, single-handedly.
• Southern Gentleman: Six centuries in the future, this archetype has become the basis for a new knightly tradition in the Old South. Likewise Southern Belle.
• South of the Border: Mexico is represented by a rump state around Mexico City, but as with America and Canada, most of the outlying provinces have become their own independent factions. Most follow the Sagrado Corazon cult of saints or one of a number of Mayincatec or syncretic faiths, but there are more 'orthodox' Christians in the form of the Cristeros in the center of the country.
• Unspecified Apocalypse: The nature of The Event is deliberately left vague and up to the player's interpretation. One event involves a conversation on the subject, with suggestions including Gaia's Vengeance, the Nuclear Option, a Zombie Apocalypse, and a civilization-breaking Bolt of Divine Retribution.
• Vestigial Empire:
  • Mexico, while considerably smaller in size, nonetheless managed to survive as a country, Hispanic culture is still prevalent in some parts of the lost Mexican territories.
  • While Canada as a nation is long gone, and there's no equivalent to Americanism there, its national memories are still strong enough to not only allow the Mounties to continue existing as a knightly order, but also inspire various Anglican and Ursuline claimants seeking to revive the old country.
  • The Americanists claim to be this for the old USA. But by the time the game starts, only scattered memories, Future Imperfect records and largely symbolic titles like "President of the United States" remain, and all the states loyal to their faith only rule the East Coast near DC and some land in Florida or Texas. It's up to the player whether those claims have any solid foundation.
  • The Holy Columbian Confederacy tends to see itself as the sole legitimate successor to the old United States, or rather a new incarnation of the ancient Confederate States of America.
  • The Mormons of Deseret are arguably this, given how they see themselves as a direct continuation of their pre-Event ancestors.
  • California is on paper still a powerful empire, but the actual Emperor has been reduced to a figurehead who only governs Sacramento and its environs while his notional vassals squabble amongst themselves as de facto independent warlords.
  • Averted however with the British, who have managed to revive the British Empire and are intent on attempting to reclaim their colonies in North America.
• Vision Quest: Various pagan, Afro-Syncretic, and Native American religions all allow vision quests as a rite of passage. You can get various bonuses or penalties depending on what your character sees, and how you interpret the visions.
• Voudoun: Voudoun and Santeria have grown to become the dominant religions in parts of Louisiana and the Caribbean, respectively.
• Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names: In full force.
  • Among the Southron culture the classic Southern Gentleman names are commonplace, including archaic names like Augustus, Justinian, and Saturn.
  • Their Dixie relatives include Colquitt Rootes, Cleavon Candler, and Jubal Blythe.
  • Beltway culture features names derived from the legal system, like Justita and Habeas.
  • “Literal translation names” common among the Puritans have made a comeback in the Northeastern US, such as Increase and Onesiphorus, as well as virtue names like Patience and Charity. Alongside common names like Paul and William are names like Jeroham, Lazarus, and Saltborn.
  • Mountainer culture includes names like Hoss, Vrain, and Trommel, while Coloradan contains Mineralis Haggot, Bessemer Suaso, and Bolder Flatiron.
  • Also in the spirit of the Puritans, the Popes in St. Louis have started taking hyper-religious names, such as Praised-Be, Blessed-Be, God-is-Great and Hallelujah.
  • Angeleno characters have names and dynasties taken from famous movie stars, including the current king Ronald, and some such as Rock and Gable.
  • Basically, the whole game is an encyclopedia of truly grand, if not somewhat stereotypical, regional American names.
• A World Half Full: After the apocalypse, America is putting itself together fairly well. New civilizations have taken root, and while the world is still a patchwork of warring, medieval feudal states, benevolent leaders can bring stability and hope. It's implied that after the game's end date, a new renaissance will come, and humanity has an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
• The Wild West: The Trailwalker religion is basically an entire religion dedicated to the mythos of the Wild West. They worship gods such as "Missus Sureshot", their chief deity is called the "Spirit of the West", and their warrior lodge is called "The Rangers".

After the End 2 (Crusader Kings 3)

• Acronyms Are Easy as Aybeecee:
  • There are several places in America where an abbreviation of their antediluvian name has supplanted the original one, like the culture in New Orleans being "Nolan" (from N.O., LA).
  • One region of Florida is known as "Eyefor," after the I-4 highway.
• After the End: Just like its predecessor, even beginning at the same date, July 4th, 2666. The Event is similarly left ambiguous, though it must have been bad to knock the New World back to medieval times for six centuries.
• All Hail the Great God Mickey!: Even more examples this time around.
  • Artistic faiths, most notably Vanguards of Progress in Central America, believe in the intrinsic power of art as the key to divinity, particularly inspired by the Modernist movement in Central America.
  • Astronomer faiths believe that divinity (and their gods) lie in the stars and accordingly worship aliens, relying heavily on pop-culture descriptions of them. This group is very diverse, ranging from Zetans and Ashtaris in North America to Camino Estelar and Vale de Amanhecer in South America. Notably, some faiths in this group are atheist, believing aliens are not gods but a higher form of life to be revered and emulated accordingly.
  • Athletic faiths, including the snowboarding Stokeists and surfboarding Gnarlists, believe in sport and physical contest as the purest expressions of the divine, emulating sports heroes of days long lost.
  • Divinia Patriotia faiths, including Patria Grande, Madre Patria, and Mesias Che, are essentially nationalist hero cults with a Christian veneer, idolizing figures of liberation such as Simon Bolivar. Che Guevara, meanwhile, is seen by followers of Mesias Che as the Second Coming of Christ.
  • The Cristero Catholic Church, while still recognizably Christian, has over time fused Mexican nationalism with the larger Catholic paradigm, with patriotic iconography and rhetoric taking almost as much precedence as Our Lady of Guadalupe.
  • Idiosyncratic faiths, including Alineados, Hexagonals, Auditoristas and Enigmáticos, idolize secular aspects of Mexican culture such as Mexican nationalism and wrestling in rejection of the larger Catholic paradigm. This is most notable with the Alineados, whose basis, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, had come to blows with the Catholic Church in the past.
  • Pampeano and Trailwalker faiths are broadly based around the same ideal: the frontier mythos. Pampeano take their inspiration from gauchos while Trailwalkers take their inspiration from cowboys, both giving religious reverence to the rough and tumble frontier ideal of their regions.
  • The Evonianism faith, developed on the Galapagos, are a Darwinist set of beliefs that state all living things must engage in competition with one another to be "Naturally Selected".
  • The Veteranic faiths, represented by the Army of Paracletes and Legion of Remembrance, are Abrahamic offshoots infusing Christianity with Canadian nationalism and Remembrance Day traditions.
  • The Platinean faiths, such as Heromaquia, Confederal, and Dualema, echo Divinia Patriotia in being hero cults that have taken the tumultuous political culture of Argentina and Uruguay, and over the centuries reinterpreted it into a divine struggle called the Competencia Mundial. This is especially evident in how the descendants of Perón's supporters, the Justicialists, are seen as "heretics", and in how Che Guevara is reimagined as an esoteric night deity.
  • The Britannic faiths, represented through scattered pockets such as the Waveriders, cling onto distorted memories of British nationalism and Anglo culture, believing that the fallen Lady Britannia will return to rescue her own and reassert power over her wayward dominions.
• All Jews Are Ashkenazi: Largely true on the East Coast of the United States but not elsewhere, most notably on the West Coast with the cosmopolitan Kadmonic Jews and in Brazil with the converso Anussim.
• The Almighty Dollar: Consumerism makes a reappearance but with even more variants than previously within the larger "Capitalist" religious group.
  • Consumerism, which emphasizes both accumulation of wealth and spending that wealth.
  • Monetarism, which emphasizes only the accumulation of wealth without much spending.
  • Lacunarclast, which breaks with other Capitalist faiths by insisting upon the equality of women to allow for more consumers.
  • Greenbacker, which emphasizes the role of American capitalism to the point of syncretism with Americanism and the material dollar over the gold standard.
• Alternate History: The timeline split with our own at some point, with the most agreed upon point for most people being the year 2000.
• Americasia: Even more present in California than previously, with Guruist faiths having more Asian aspects than Ceticism, which was more syncretic with Western religions.
• Anachronism Stew: Vestiges of the old world can be visibly seen in the otherwise medieval fashions of various states and cultures.
  • Americanists, like in Fan Fork, tend to don wigs and paraphernalia reminiscent of the 18th-19th Centuries.
  • Brazilians, meanwhile, combine elements of both 19th Century formalwear and 16th Century conquistador attire, complete with morion helmets.
  • Depending on the culture, certain characters may don headwear clearly derived from football helmets, Canadian Mountie hats, and Wild West stemsons. Inuits even have access to protective eyewear based on modern winter goggles.
• Ancestor Veneration: Present in many Amerindian religions, just as it is in real life.
• Ascended Extra: Many groups and religions who had a small role in Fan Fork are expanded upon in this mod, as well as some from its spin-off Just After the End.
  • Brazil, once an almost entirely off-map empire in Fan Fork, is fully playable now. This of course includes other aspects of South America that were represented in Fan Fork as either offmap cultures such as Quechua, Wladfaeg, or Gaúcho or religions such as Celeste.
  • Several parts of the Aguila o Sol submod are incorporated wholesale into the mod, most notably in regards to the religious makeup of Mexico. Atomicists in North Mexico have been replaced with Limpios (formerly Fidencista) and Cristeros rule the plurality of Mexico.
  • Several faiths originally created for Just After the End also make an appearance in the Crusader Kings 3 mod including Freedomite, Ashtari, Quadrine, Kojtumbrem, and Quetzaltec.
  • Several religions that had branch traits in Fan Fork have spawned full-fledged faiths from those branch traits, mostly notably Occultist, Sagrado Corazon, and Qab'antajik.
• Ascended Meme: Communist religions and UFO cults were two frequent suggestions for the Fan Fork mod, and they finally make an appearance in the Crusader Kings 3 mod.
• Authority in Name Only: The President of the Americanists supposedly rules over all of America, but his authority only extends religiously over Americanists, with the Presidency at the start only controlling Washington D.C. Notably, all Americanist faiths respect the religious authority of the President, unlike in Fan Fork where heresies were unconnected to the Presidency.
• Back from the Brink: Just like Fan Fork, many real life minorities and religions have experienced a resurgence after the Event. This is most notable in areas where Native Americans are present such as the Great Plains, the Pacific Northwest, and large parts of South America. Patagonia is an area where this is especially present, as the Selk'nam people and their Xo'on faith are almost completely extinct in real life but again rule their ancestral homeland.
• Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Anahata represents opposition to the Emperor of California spiritually and temporally, adhering to the old sages instead of the Emperor as Guru.
• Cast Full of Gay: Gay marriage and homosexuality are accepted across the map on a much larger scale than in Fan Fork, especially in the western half of the United States. This is somewhat strange when it applies to more rural and conservative areas such as Wyoming and Montana, as all Trailwalker faiths have gay marriage accepted.
• Cargo Cult: Several cargo cult religions that appeared in Fan Fork such as Consumerists, Galvanists (formerly Rust Cultists), and Atomicists are present also in Crusader Kings 3, with several other new faiths being introduced.
• Chummy Commies: Unlike Fan Fork, communism and concepts inspired by it do make an appearance in the Crusader Kings 3 mod, not just as a negative concept within other religions.
  • Anahata, located in California, is a blend of anti-authority ideals such as anarchism and communism that respects sages such as Lenin instead of the Emperor of California. According to the developers, it takes inspiration from the New Left and the anti-war movements of the Vietnam era, which also flourished in California.
  • La Hermanidad, a Christifornian faith also known as the "Braceros", is a hybridization of the Chicano Movement, California's United Farm Workers and Catholicism into a socialistic offshoot of Christianity that values diversity and the community welfare above all.
  • The Liberationist faith is inspired by the in real life concept of liberation theology, which emphasizes the liberation of the oppressed and is spread throughout Latin America.
  • Mesias Che, located in Bolivia, is a martyr-cult of Che Guevara, conflating him with Jesus and giving emphasis to the plight of the poor and oppressed.
  • Posadist, though not present at the start, is a mix of UFO cult and communism that believes that aliens are communists who will enlighten humanity one day and the old systems should be destroyed in preparation for that. The strangest thing is that this idea is (or was) actually real.
  • While no starting faiths have it, newly established Industrialist faiths, provided they have either the Option for the Poor or Communal Possessions tenet, may Select the Workers of the World doctrine, emphasizing the workers among the Titans and harkening back to the old trade unionist past of America's industrial heartland.
  • Votanzapatismo, a Mayan faith also present in the Fan Fork as a branch trait, takes inspiration from the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (also located in Chiapas) and the older pre-Columbian Mayan pantheon.
• Church Militant: True for several religions, most notably Cristero and Ursuline who are led by the leaders of military orders. It also applies to the many holy orders than can appear across the map, giving almost any religion the opportunity to become this.
• Cowboy: Appears both in a cultural and religious context due to the expanded cultural mechanics in CK3. The Trailwalkers and Gauchadas are prominent examples of cowboy religions, though in vastly different contexts.
• Civil War: There are two ongoing civil wars at the start within the larger empires on the map.
  • Tawantinsuyu, also known as the reestablished Inca Empire, is wrapped up in a deadly civil war between different claimants to the throne, eerily similar to the state of empire before the arrival of Francisco Pizarro.
  • Though the states are not at war at the start of the game, the Empire California and the Kingdom of Atlantis in Jefferson start diametrically opposed with the Phylosian king of Atlantis challenging both the emperor's spiritual and temporal authority.
• Crisis of Faith: This appears on a societal scale prominently twice in the mod, and it can happen on a more personal level with individual characters.
  • Just as in Fan Fork, the Holy Columbian Confederation experiences a religious crisis after the discovery of a document attesting to religious tolerance and diversity in Old America. This leads to the proliferation of not just Christian heresies such as the anti-Caesaropapist Redemptionists and the communal River Baptists but also more strange religions spreading such as Revelationism.
  • In After the End for CK3, Brazil has its own religious crisis that follows the discovery of documents relating to the historical Modern Art Week. The existing Modernist faiths gain huge traction due to this and it is not uncommon for Brazil to be overtaken by Modernists within a generation of this event.
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: This label could apply to several faiths in the mod.
  • Phylosian is perhaps the best example of this, presenting a curious mix of Christianity, Mount Shasta legends, Lemurian sunken continent mythology, and science fiction. The source for Phylosian, an obscure book named A Dweller on Two Planets, surprisingly presents much the same.
  • Among Veteranic faiths, Jesus is conflated with the "Unknown Soldier" of Canadian Remembrance Day tradition to become the "Unknown Saviour."
  • Mesias Che notably conflates Jesus with Che Guevara, with the latter's life interpreted as being the Second Coming of Christ.
  • Jesus Freaks reimagine Christ as the prime Guru above all others, their creed infusing not only Guruist influences, but also elements of Hippie subculture.
• Cult of Personality: Present in several places where faiths are inspired by one person specifically, most notably Simón Bolívar and Che Guevara in South America.
• Darker and Edgier: With the added mechanics of CK3, the cruelty potential in post-apocalyptic Americas has only increased, espescially with the addition of religions that practice cannibalism or human sacrifice.
• Deep South: The South is dominated by the Holy Columbian Commonwealth, just as it was by the Holy Columbian Confederacy in CK2. The developers have removed much of previous Confederate imagery from the HCC, most prominently the clothing and symbols, right down to what the second "C" stood for, and the empire is even more multicultural than before (but no more stable).
• Demoted to Extra: Once known more authoritatively as "Catholic" in Fanfork, Conclavist is now only one of many Catholic splinter sects though its promotion of a new Pope does set it apart from many others.
  • Similarly, groups such as the Rastafarians and Santeras around the Caribbean and the Haida in the Pacific Northwest as well as the Atomicists of the North American deserts lack much of the territory they had previously.
• Divided States of America: Just as in Fanfork, the United States has fragmented into hundreds of different realms and regional cultures, with even more emphasis on cultural drift due to the mechanics of CK3. One might consider the Americanist Presidency centered around Washington DC to be perhaps a rump state of sorts, but the Americanists' claim to continuity is dodgy at best.
• Eagleland: The Americanists make a return, this time in even larger numbers as an entire religious group who worship the Founding Fathers and other American icons. On closer inspection, you could say different Americanist sects represent different parts of the American mythos, which some people may regard as Beautiful or Boorish (the Constitution, Manifest Destiny, equality under the law). Nevertheless, they are nevertheless still united by the Presidency and democratic elections, putting aside their differences to elect one President for all Americanists. Some might see that as Beautiful in its own way.
  • Constitutionalists are sticklers for the letter of the law, especially in regards to the Constitution and other Americanist holy texts. They are generally seen as the most conservative and legalistic sect of Americanism.
  • Exceptionalists are focused more on the ideal of Manifest Destiny than interpretation of Americanist holy texts, believing the reclamation of rightful American soil to be of utmost importance. They are generally seen as the most aggressive sect of Americanism.
  • Libertarians worship the Statue of Liberty as greater than all the Founders and the true personification of America. They have taken the Statue of Liberty's message of acceptance as doctrine, considered the most liberal and accepting Americanist sects.
  • Imaginarians emphasize the great deeds of the Founders and strive to replicate them, most particularly celebrating America’s conquest of the moon and “gods” (rockets) who assisted. They are a fairly moderate Americanist sect.
  • Principalists hold to the principle rather than the letter of the law, not taking Americanist holy texts literally and applying the law more situationally. They are generally seen as one of the more liberal sects of Americanism.
  • Mayflowers, unlike other Americanists, are a radical sect partially derived from Puritanism. Rejecting many Americanist institutions, they instead assert those institutions will be restored when Tyranny is finally defeated and the universe is purified by the grace of Providence, in whom the Spirit of '76 is embodied.
  • Yeomanists consider Thomas Jefferson the greatest of all the Founders and believe that every American has sovereign rights and privileges under the Common Law. This makes them more radical as they also openly reject the President's authority, detesting anyone seeking to assert power over them.
  • In addition to the proper Americanist religion, several other faiths, mostly in the Anarchronous family, are in some degree of communion or syncretism with Americanism and follow the Americanist president as their own head of faith, including Greenbacker Capitalists, Arsenalist Industrialists, and the Latter-Day Patriots, who are a Mormon cult.
• Easter Egg: There are numerous flavors of easter eggs in the mod referencing people, groups, and events that are both real life and fictional, too many to just list here.
• Eco-Terrorist: Somewhat within the niche of Revengeants and possibly Sagesteppers, who cause wanton destruction in the name of nature or Mother Earth (or at least her memory).
• Eldritch Abomination: The object of worship for the Cults of the Starry Wisdom, this time directly unlike in Fan Fork as a Satanist cult within Occultism.
• The Empire: The Holy Colombian Confederation and Empire of Brazil serve as the major hegemons in North and South America, respectively, though their power at the start is shown to be very fragile.
• Fantastic Catholicism: There are myriad forms of Catholicism in this mod, many more than in the previous mod. This applies to both North America and South America, thought more so in Catholic majority South America.
• Fantasy Americana: While the game's set squarely in a post-apocalyptic America, certain elements in the game also hint at more fantastical elements in the setting.
• Feudal Future: As in the base game, the game mechanics are based on a simplified version of feudalism and other medieval forms of government.
• Free-Love Future: Some cultures or religions, most prominently in the Pacific Northwest, have cultural traditions that enable them to have multiple lovers of any gender.
• Future Primitive: Technology has regressed to neo-medieval levels similarly to Fanfork, with some factions being worse off than others, and the mod can only get to roughly Renaissance levels by the end.
• Gaia's Vengeance: The idea behind the General of Gaia and especially the Revengeants.
• Gay Cowboy: Curiously much more present in this mod than Fanfork, with more traditionally conservative areas such as Wyoming and Montana being more accepting of homosexuals than California due to the Trailwalker religion being dominant there.
• God Is Evil: Behemothists believe that God exists, but that he broke the Noahic Covenant by allowing the Event to happen, making him no longer worthy of worship.
• Grim Up North: Alaska, Nunavut, Greenland, and Svalbard are added to the map while not being present in Fan Fork. They are incredibly poor lands with pitiful income and levies and punishing supply limit and development modifiers from the ubiquitous taiga, tundra, arctic, and mountain terrain types present in the region, but they are now playable. One regional perk however is access to the dog sleds innovation, which are skirmishers with a well above-average stat block for skirmishers and enormous bonuses to fighting in the terrains common to the region and winter fighting, but also huge penalties in any remotely rough terrain outside of it.
• Higher Understanding Through Drugs: There are several faiths throughout the maps that have the "Sacramental Herbs" tenet, which involves taking various drugs as religious ritual.
• Hordes from the East: From a certain point of view, yes. To be more geographically accurate, there are tribal hordes roughly in the middle of both continents with vulnerable lands to their east and west.
• Horny Vikings: Vikings remain in their position in Fan Fork, largely unchanged from the location previously. The largest difference is in the content of the faith, where football and local folklore are given larger emphasis, such as the addition of Brett Favre to the pantheon and the conflation of Valhalla and the NFL Hall of Fame as "Valhallafame", as well as the existence of Linebacker heavy infantry regiments.
• Human Sacrifice: There are several religions and faiths that practice human sacrifice, both in North and South America. None of them are really common, thankfully.
• Immigrant Patriotism: This perhaps best applies to the Amerikyyun, who are Muslims who believe the Constitution was divinely inspired and therefore trend closer to Americanists. Other Muslims predictably do not agree with this.
• Injun Country: Native Americans play a big part in the mod, with more indigenous cultures and religions across the map. It is especially true in South America, where Tawantinsuyu is dominated by resurgent Inti and Inkarri movements.
• Interfaith Smoothie:
  • Applies across the map due to widespread syncretism, applying Christian faiths, Jewish faiths, New Age faiths, and even Islamic faiths.
  • Within religious groups, there are radical syncretic faiths that incorporate even more influence from another belief system to the point of being almost unrecognizable. Among the more notable ones being the United Arsenals of America (an Industrial faith taking heavy cues from Americanism), Mayflower Society (an Americanist creed deeply infused with New England Puritanism), and Freaky Fellowships of Jesus/Jesus Freaks (a Christifornian group that more akin to a Guruist offshoot than a Christian one).
• Language Drift: English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish have drifted a great deal into dozens of smaller languages and dialects with several more granular levels of relation that are not present in vanilla CK3. So for example, Yinzic (which is only spoken by the culture of the same name) is in the Midwestern group of the Englic family and has better relations with Cowbohemians, who speak Plain speak which is also in the Midwestern than with Yousers, which are in the Atlantic group of the same family. And all of these are closer relations than they have with Guayanes, who speak Llanero, which is in the Andino group of the Hispanophonic family, which is roughly the level of difference present in vanilla CK3 languages.
• Les Collaborateurs: Present in California and Tawantinsuyu in regards to Christians and other religions under Imperial rule. The Christians in Tawantinsuyu have the choice of either growing closer to their Incan overlords or becoming more conscientiously Christian.
• Lovecraft Country: Makes a reappearance as the Cults of Starry Wisdom, most composed of the Lovecraftian and Satanic aspects of the Occultist religion.
• Machine Worship: Applies most closely to the Industrial and Digital faiths, though in very different way. Industrial faiths, based on the Rust Cultists in Fan Fork, worship captains of industry, workers, or both while Digital faiths deify electronics and the concept of the Internet. To a lesser extent, the Wellness religion also engages in this, as while it is primarily fire worship and ritualized fitness, it is also heavily tied in with old oil extraction as an earthly source of the sacred flame, to the point that their symbol is a stylized oil well.
• Masked Luchador: Included as its own faith now as Hexagonal, which is essentially a Mexican hero cult focused on martial prowess and Mexican wrestling culture.
• Matriarchy: Most apparent in the Naturalist group, which is mostly female-dominated just as the Gaians were in Fanfork.
• Mayincatec: Averted, as all three groups are now represented on the map in Mexico, Central America, and Peru and are quite distinct.
• Messianic Archetype: Messianic beliefs are important to several faiths in the mod, with Celestism and Terra Benta have mechanics specifically for the presence of messiahs in those faiths.
• Modern Mayincatec Empire: Applies most directly to Tawantinsuyu, which represents a reestablished Incan Empire. It is not a 1:1 comparison however, as it is strictly an Incan empire and does not include Aztec or Mayan influences, rightfully so.
• Mormonism: Just as in the CK2 mod, Mormons dominate Utah and the surrounding regions in the former western United States, though they also have more heresies this time around including Quadrine, a gay accepting sect first included in Just After the End.
• The Mothman: The icon and reputation of this cryptid are used to represent the Omenteller faith in, of course, West Virginia, focused on the same kind of occult worship as the Lovecraftian faiths in New England.
• Mystery Cult: This specifically applies to Shadow Sacrament, which is a sect of pseudo-Christians in California who maintain a level of secrecy to their rituals.
• Mythology Gag: Although it is canon to neither the CK2 nor CK3 version of the mod, some of the changes to the CK3 mod's version of California are reminiscent of Just After the End, such as Silicon Valley being home to a IT-themed cargo cult and the Mojave being home to worshippers of Ashtar Sheran.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: Many of the religions in California take some inspiration from the counterculture movement. Among the most pronounced being the Guruist faiths and Jesus Freaks.
• The Old Gods: Several older pantheons have made a return, whether it be the Xo'on faith of the near-extinct Selk'nam people in Patagonia or the Viking faith in the Midwest from across the Atlantic (with a heavy dose of football).
• Only in Florida: Floridian cultures have the "Life is just a Joke" to reflect the often absurd happenings in the state and their resulting dark sense of humor.
• Overly Long Name: The Mayflower Society combines New England Puritanism with strict Americanist patriotism, resulting in such hyphenated first names as "Shall-Not-Perish-from-the-Earth".
• Preserve Your Gays: Due to the fact gay acceptance is far more widespread in this version of the mod, surviving as an out homosexual is much easier than with the previous mod.
• Promoted to Playable: Due to the map being expanded to include the entirety of the Americas, the Emperor of Brazil is now a playable character like any other.
  • The American President Franklin was unplayable in the CK2 mod due to having the theocratic government form, but is now playable as the strongest ruler of the religion in the map.
• Proud Warrior Race: Due to the way traditions work in CK3, this applies to several cultures including most cultures in the American South who have the "Southern Knights" tradition.
• Radiation-Induced Superpowers: This is the main crux of the Quantum faith group, which believe in the divinity of radiation, atoms and hidden things in the world. They see nuclear scientists and other notable figures as sorcerers who harnessed the power of the universe to create and destroy on an unimaginable scale.
  • Atomicists and Aphites make a reappearance, largely with the same beliefs they had in Fan Fork.
  • Novaists conflate Atomos and radioactive powers with the Sun, and they worship the Sun accordingly.
  • Thermonullists believe that there is a limited amount of atoms and energy in the universe, and that they should "burn" all that energy without restraint to bring about purification.
  • Kanadevans (A post-Event form of Hinduism influenced by the Quantum faiths) believe that "Upnehima" (Oppenheimer) was an avatar of Shiva and that one can achieve moksha by studying and harnessing atomic energy.
• Religion of Evil: Although no religion is portrayed as "evil" in the game, plenty of faiths see other religions as evil by their very existence, most notably the Church of La Santisma Muerte in Mexico and the Cults of Starry Wisdom in New England.
• The Remnant:
  • The Christifornian faiths are the last Christian holdouts in the West Coast, which cut off from the rest of mainstream Christianity, now exist in a land where they are, like the ancient church in the mythical Old World, the minority. While some like the Braceros hold steadfast to more traditional Catholic-derived customs, albeit with socialistic undertones, others like the Jesus Freaks have incorporated Guruist influences to the point of viewing Christ as the one true Guru.
  • Similarly, the Church of the Veiled Cross is one of the few Christian holdouts in New England, engaging in hidden rituals and permitting false conversion to try to survive and keep the faith amidst a hostile Occultist majority.
  • In what had been Canada, adherents of the Veteranic faiths are among the last carrying on the embers of Canadian nationalism and Remembrance Day in a land that has seemingly forgotten them, or distorted both beyond recognition.
  • In Patagonia, the Welsh-speaking descendants of Y Wladfa have managed to preserve their cultural heritage. While off the coast, the Falklands remain home to a stubbornly persistent Anglo culture that still clings onto its British heritage.
• Sadly Mythtaken: Numerous formerly Christian faith groups such as Vernacular, Postadventist, and Tributist are counted as their own religions now, forgoing traditional Christian beliefs in Jesus and the trinity for more divergent beliefs such as the Serpentine God, the Unknown Savior, and numerous Saints and Demons.
• Small, Secluded World:
  • The Galapagos islands, far from any other landmass, have become entirely self reliant and have adopted a Darwinist perspective on life.
  • The Falklands, similarly, are largely removed from their Platinean and Patagonian neighbors, with their people still clinging onto their British heritage to the point of morphing into a religion.
  • The Pierrais, the inhabitants of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, are largely left to their own devices and ironically retain much more direct continuity with the French Métropole across the Atlantic than their Francophonic counterparts in former Canada.
  • Svalbard in the far northeast is secluded even from Greenland and has a small but resilient society that hangs on even in the frozen reaches of the north and carefully husbands resources such as the contents of the Svalbard Seed Vault to ensure a sustainable supply of food.
• Shrouded in Myth: This is true in the Crusader Kings 3 mod just as it was in Fan Fork, with memories of the world before the Event being lost and those memories left are twisted by those left behind. This is most present in religions who deified mortal men and women, such as the Presidents for Americanism and Libertardores for Divinia Patriotia.
• South of the Border: Mexico is again represented by a rump state around Veracruz, this time religiously Cristero instead of Sagrado Corazon. The country is even more religiously divided than in Fanfork, with various heterodox faiths inspired by Mexican and indigenous traditions fighting for dominance.
• Southern Gentleman: The Holy Columbian Confederation has based its identity of of this and the ideal of Southern chivalry, and it is a part of the larger Dixieland cultural heritage group as the "Southern Knights" cultural tradition.
• Teenage Wasteland: In Patagonia, the followers of La Banda de Juventud, also known as the Juventides, treat youth as sacred and a divine manifestation of human vitality, in which living young and never growing old are lauded. They are also prone to forming great spontaneous mobs in order to violently spread the faith, hoping to die young for the glory of their creed.
• The Theocracy: Several faiths mix religious authority with temporal authority, most notably Mesias Che, Guruist faiths, and Americanist faiths. However, these faiths are not even that intolerant compared with other faiths such as Mormonism, the Redemptionist Convention, Neo-Pentecostalism, and Old Order, whose societies are more stereotypically "theocratic".
• Vestigial Empire:
  • Unlike Fan Fork, the Americanists this time around are suggested as having direct continuity with the old United States government, with the Founding Fathers and past Presidents instead seen as embodying the will of Providence rather than worshipped as gods outright. Over the centuries, however, what had only been a "civic religion" binding Americans together has morphed into a full-fledged religious and philosophical institution.
  • In the Falklands, what remained of British rule had morphed over the centuries into the Waverider faith. Even after several generations, the locals still see themselves as part of a long gone empire where the sun never set and continue to await Britannia's return.
• Video Game Remake: Played with, as a lot of the same characters and states show up in the Crusader Kings 3 mod, and it has the same startdate, 2666. However, there are some noticeable differences between the mods for Crusader Kings 2 and Crusader Kings 3, most notably the addition of South America and the far north regions of Northern America. Also, areas such as California and the Holy Columbian Commonwealth (formerly Confederacy) have their own changes from their counterparts in Fan Fork.
• Voudoun: Afro-Syncretic traditions, not just Voodoo, are represented throughout the Americas, divided between Orishan and Vodun traditions, most centered around the Caribbean and in Brazil.
• The Wild West: The Trailwalkers make a reappearance, with more variations! A notable difference from Fan Fork is the fact Trailwalkers accept homosexuality.
  • Interranger is the Rocky Mountains variant of the Trailwalker faith.
  • Midnight Sun is the Arctic variant of the Trailwalker faith and emphasizes both the harshness and wonder of the sometimes days-long day and night of the far north.
  • Real Road is the most stereotypical Trailwalker faith, located on the plains and emphasizes the old roads of iron (railroads).
  • Sagestepper is the most divergent Trailwalker faith, with a strain of apocalyptism related to an ancient war between mankind, Sasquatch, and Fearsome Critters.
  • Saguarorrinche is the North Mexican variant of the Trailwalker faith that adheres to pacifism.

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