North America (Nuclearth)
Before the war, North America was home to less than six percent of the world's population, but nevertheless the site of perhaps the most powerful nation in the world, economically and militarily. The nuclear exchange, however, devastated the continent like no other save perhaps Europe, and it was reduced to an almost uninhabited wasteland; although exact population figures in the immediate aftermath of the war are hard to come by, the best estimates have it that the population of North America in that time was perhaps half a percent of the total much-decreased population of the world. Nevertheless, there were enough people left, if not to restore what was lost, at least to build their own civilization in the ashes of what had gone before, until two and a half centuries after the war, commerce and civilization again extends from coast to coast, though to a lesser extent than it had before.
Geography and climate
Though North America suffered more damage during the war than any other continent, its gross shape remains the same. There are a few new bays that weren't there before, and an overall slight contraction of the coastline, but its old outline is still broadly recognizable. However, the climate conditions have changed very noticeably, at both the high and low latitudes. Even before the apocalypse, the very northern parts of the continent were freezing cold, and the southern parts were warm and tropical, but now the areas of these extremes have spread, and the temperate region has contracted. The frigid conditions of the northern reaches now extend down to about what was once the Canadian border, forming an almost uninhabited expanse known as the White North, while the rain forests that before covered much of Central America now continue north to blanket most of what was formerly Mexico, which has now lent its name to the so-called Mexican Jungle.
Between the White North and the Mexican Jungle is the temperate expanse where most of North America's inhabitants live. While still sparsely populated compared to preapocalyptic standards, this area—comprising for the most part what was once the United States of America—is densely covered with cities compared to the rest of the continent, although there are some sizeable communities on the coastlines of the jungles and the North. Even here, of course, some areas are more populous than others, the Mojave remaining something of a wasteland, and the coasts, again, lending themselves to the highest populations. Some of the most significant regions of North America include California, Florida, the Midwest, and New England—the first two of these including the preapocalyptic states from which the regions take their names, but encompassing further area beyond them as well.
Of course, having been subject to such extensive nuclear bombardment, North America is dotted liberally by areas of the Burning Fields, some of them of enormous size. The largest such area is Philadelphia, so called not because the preapocalyptic city of that name was the largest or the hardest hit but because it happened to be in the middle—the principal targets were New York City and Washington D.C., but everything between those two cities is now irradiated and uninhabitable. Like other Burning Fields, Philadelphia is occasionally visited by suitably protected (or short-lived) scavengers and explorers, albeit avoided by other people, but Philadelphia remains particularly attractive, not only because of its size and its preapocalyptic importance but because of rumors that somewhere within Philadelphia lies the secret bunker of James Carrister, last president of the U.S.A. Other important Burning Fields of North America include Los Angeles, Area 51, and Salt Lake City.
Life
A few of the life forms that used to live in North America were wiped out by the war. Already somewhat rare, the bison unfortunately seems to have been pushed over the edge to extinction, and so was that symbol of America, the bald eagle. Some more common organisms inexplicably died out too, however, including the raccoon, the wild horse, and the sunflower. However, various new mutant species have arisen in the wake of the disaster. Roaming the center of the continent are herds of gophelo, gigantic rodents that leave swaths of vegetal destruction everywhere they go. Killer ostriches, descended from escaped birds imported to North America to be raised for their meat, wander in the western part of the continent. Fire skunks defend themselves with inflammable projections, and poison pines with envenomed quills. North American predators include the deafening shrieker cat and the terrible hairless skinbear.
Other organisms roam the jungles of Central America, such as the two-nosed tapir and the stinger cat. The White North has life of its own, including the predacious white walrus that sometimes finds its way to populated areas, and the horned bokwus that haunts the forests. Mutant plants, too, exist in North America, some of them potentially dangerous, including the mantrap moss, whose pendant fronds hide a grasping mouth; and the tannenbaum, which defends itself with powerful electrical discharges.
Domesticated animals unique to North America include the guff, a hardy ungulate that grows a tough wool that North American guffherders export all over the world. Guffs are tolerant of a wide range of temperatures, and can be found far into the White North as well as in the northern parts of Central America. The giant desert lizards of the Mojave can also be trained, and while they're rarely found in cities they're often utilized by hillmen, bandits, and salvage-men.
There is at least one strain of mutant human, too, that originated in North America and is still found primarily there—the wind people, graceful, long-haired people most of whom still hew to a nonindustrial way of life somewhat similar to that of the salvage-men.
Culture
Most of Nuclear North America's inhabitants live in microstates consisting of no more than a dozen cities (and usually much fewer), ruled by local mayors or councils. Single leaders are marginally more common, though they may choose other titles; instead of mayors, they may prefer to be called lords, or governors, or sheriffs. However they style themselves, these individuals usually rule by force of arms, and rarely make any pretence of democratic election or of catering to the will of the populace. Of course, like many tyrants, the rule of a mayor is often brief, and its end bloody, though some mayors do manage to keep their position for many years, and a rare few may even die of old age. Towns run by councils may be slightly more stable, though this isn't necessarily the case, and in any case many "councils" end up dominated by a single individual and becomes a dictatorship in all but name. A few of the larger cities have a more sophisticated government that involves both a mayor and a council, or some other system, but this remains uncommon. Whether nominally led by mayors or councils, however, many of the cities may have other individuals pulling the strings and really running things—crimelords, powerful merchants, or other éminences grises who hide behind figureheads and control the city behind the scenes.
In any case, these cities are usually founded in the reclaimed ruins of preapocalyptic cities—some communities are built from scratch, but it's easier to use foundations that are already there. Often, the cities are given the same names as their preapocalyptic counterparts, but sometimes the names are slightly changed, or the cities are given new names unconnected with them. Most North American communities of any size are likely to have at least one boarding house for the use of couriers, traders, and other travelers, often, though by no means always, adapted from preapocalyptic motels or other communal buildings. General stores are another fixture of North American towns, selling an assortment of goods from food to tools to preapocalyptic relics. Certainly specialty stores may also exist, but what the general stores lack in depth within a particular specialty, they more than make up in breadth. Also common, if less so, are fighting arenas, where customers pay to see (and often bet on) combatants beating on each other in various ways.
In the western part of the continent, each city tends to be an independent entity, trading with neighboring cities but each with its own separate government. In the east, however, larger units are common, with a central city also claiming dominion over a half dozen or so satellite cities under a (more or less) unified government. This is a gradual trend rather than an absolute distinction, however, and in the middle of the continent, from the Great Plains to the Appalachians, independent city-states and polypolitan microstates coexist in varying proportions. Some more unusual settlements include the headquarters of the Union in the Midwest, dominated by a fraternity elsewhere of little influence; and Vinland, a Viking settlement on the eastern coast.
While the towns are often relatively safe (except perhaps from the whims and excesses of their leaders), travel between the towns can be very risky, with bandits and wild animals (many of them mutants) an everpresent threat. The freeways, in many places blocked or destroyed but still intact over considerable lengths, provide convenient routes for travel, but also tend to be particularly subject to bandit attacks, since the bandits know that that's where they're likely to find the most travelers. There are trains in operation in parts of the continent that allow somewhat safer travel, though even they are sometimes attacked by bandits. Perhaps the safest means of travel, at least unless one has a fear of heights, is by zeppelin, though these are expensive and difficult to obtain. And even they don't ensure complete freedom from bandit attacks; at least one resourceful bandit leader, who calls herself Captain Nike, has gotten her hands on a zeppelin of her own and carries on her business from the sky.
One of the most characteristic features of North American culture is the fraternities, organizations centered around particular goals or philosophies. Not everyone in North America is a member of a fraternity, but many are, and in most parts of North America the fraternities hold considerable political power. The leaders of most North American towns are fraternity members, and tend to show favoritism to those of their own fraternities; the same is true of most other powerful individuals. In some cases, a fraternity may run a town outright (the Feudals and the Alembics are especially known for this), though this isn't usually the case. Most of the fraternities have no centralized leadership of their own, however, and the methods and attitudes of a particular fraternity may vary somewhat from place to place.
There are a number of holidays that are widely celebrated in North America but not elsewhere on Nuclearth, mostly because they were holidays in the major nations that existed there before the war. Canada's Victoria Day gave rise to Queen's Day on May 24; Mexico's Cinco de Mayo became Mexico Day. The U.S.A. gave rise to Nuclearth's Thanksgiving (or at least its date, though of course Canada had a very similar holiday by the same name that may be considered to have merged with the American version) and its Fireworks Day on July 4. In addition, some holidays also common in the rest of the world are celebrated in North America, such as Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's Day.
Trade
As in most of the rest of Nuclearth, barter is a common means of conducting transactions, with small, portable trade goods such as bullets being most commonly used, and with some merchants accepting larger goods, or promises of service, as well. In North America, though, more so than in most other areas of Nuclearth, actual hard currency is still in use. No new coins are minted (or at least, none that are widely accepted), but the old U.S. coins are still generally accepted as valid currency. (Coins from other nations are not, though they may have some value to collectors and historians.) A U.S. coin is worth roughly a hundred times its previous value; a penny is worth more or less what a dollar was worth before the war, and a quarter twenty-five times that.
Occasionally, neighboring cities may strike up a long-term trade agreement, the leaders making their own arrangements to transport the trade goods. More often, however, trade in North America is done by traveling merchants, who usually have regular routes they stick to, and specialize in particular goods. Trade between two cities is usually accomplished not directly, but through a merchant as an intermediary. Naturally, with wagons loaded down with goods, merchants make a tempting target for bandits, but many of them work out deals with bandit groups along their routes by which they pay tolls for safe passage, the bandits giving up a possible immediate large gain for the promise of regular payments. Other merchants, however, travel with armed guards, or rely on other means to deter bandit attacks. Common trade goods include food, water, clothing, and weaponry, though there are merchants who deal in luxuries and other wares.
History
The reason that North America was hit so hard during the war was, of course, because it was the site of the United States of America, which was not only one of the most powerful nations in the world (and therefore seen as one of the biggest threats), but also one of the nations primarily responsible for starting the war in the first place. The first shot in the war came from here, when U.S. president James Carrister ordered a nuclear strike at the Soviet Union. Carrister thought this was a preemptive strike, believing that Soviet premier Alexei Dmitrievich Vintronov was already planning a similar attack on the United States; this may or may not be true, but in any case it now makes little difference. The Soviet Union counterattacked, more missiles were launched, other countries got into the fray, and the United States was pummeled—and the neighboring nations fell victim to collateral damage. A few people far from major cities managed to survive, but even more so than most of the rest of the world North America had its population decimated.
Carrister himself disappeared even before the Soviet counterstrike hit, presumably going into hiding. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't heard from since. While it's quite likely that, bomb shelter or no bomb shelter, Carrister was among the 99.98% of the population that were killed either in the immediate nuclear blasts or by in their aftermath, there have been continual rumors that he survived, hiding out in a bunker waiting for the right time to emerge and rebuild civilization. Of course, that was more than two centuries ago, so even if he did survive the initial exchange he's certainly long dead now, but there remain legends of his having established a line of succession to the presidency, and of some heir to his position still out there somewhere, maybe with a cache of amazing marvels hidden by, ready to come out and better the lives of everyone on the continent... any day now.
Dedicated to serving the rightful president when he emerges (and assuming, of course, that he'll have some compelling evidence of his identity), a group of people calling themselves the Secret Service pursue strange goals that, in their minds at least, pave the way for the president's return. Given that the president manifestly hasn't returned, and that even those Secret Service members who claim that he has don't agree on who or where he is, it's not at all clear just who it is that really gives the Secret Service their orders, but they work together well enough to suggest that someone somewhere is coördinating their efforts.