Timeline 1

1861

In 1861, a series of “darknesses” occurred where bands of yellowish clouds running north and south would block out the sun in the northern parts of the United States and in Canada. These generally only lasted a few days, but could last up to a few weeks. They completely blocked the sun in their shadows. This caused small but disturbing crop failures. There was no explanation at the time, but reports from the rest of the world from that time period indicate that these north/south streamers of Aester were some component of the beginning of the Aester forming and being drawn toward the poles.

1862/PAe 0

(The beginning of the Rise of Æster)

By 1862 a pattern was beginning to emerge and it was extremely disturbing, even to the casual observer. Large sulfurous clouds began forming over industrial cities worldwide. These clouds moved poleward without regard for wind or weather. That year, the other true threat of the Rise was fully recognized. Rising waters began to inundate all coastal areas. What had been thought to be another anomaly was now recognized as a rising catastrophe as New Orleans, Washington, DC, and parts of New York City were flooded despite all efforts to attempt to hold back the waters. The Mississippi River expanded and much of the southern coast along the Gulf of Mexico began to see dangerously rising waters that pushed inexorably inland.

Changes in the Earth’s magnetosphere cause compasses to spin uselessly through the middle of the year. By the end of the year, Magnetic North has shifted to the southern hemisphere.

Flooding and food shortages in the north force the Lincoln administration to divert troops from the battle with the Confederacy to ensure order and prevent widespread panic. This loss of manpower causes the Union army to lose the battle of Antietam. On September 28^th, Union forces defending the capitol surrender to the Army of Northern Virginia. On September the 29^th, 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed the articles of surrender, ending the Civil War.

Small scale evacuations of towns all along these coasts were underway by the beginning of 1863.

1863/PAe 1

An Aester strike hits Denver City in the early hours of April 18^th, 1863. The strike and the fires that followed it destroy much of Denver’s business and industrial districts.

Rising sea levels become truly devastating as low lying areas lose the fight to hold the waters at bay. Large portions of New Orleans become uninhabitable due to high tide flooding. Thousands of people living in the low lying areas of the coastal south began to migrate north away from the flood waters. This is dubbed the 2^nd Acadian Migration.

Generalized evacuations of Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, DC and New York begin.

Extremely violent hurricanes strike the Gulf of Mexico. The island of Galveston is evacuated and is scoured clean by the storms leaving Galveston little more than a sand bar. These storms also seal the fate of New Orleans, flooding it to a level of ten feet in most places and destroying all that was left standing

1864/PAe 2

The Confederacy makes an attempt to gain access to possessions nearer the equator, allying with France against Spain to seize Cuba.

Flooding along all coastal riverene deltas occurs at high tide. Insect populations explode in the standing water of low lying areas. Waterborne diseases become rampant as insects spread the sickness. Death tolls from disease begin to rise ominously all along the coastal regions.

1865/PAe 3

The Confederacy shifts its position and signs a secret treaty with Spain with the intent to dislodge the French from Northern Mexico. This move makes Texas the logical staging ground for warfare into Mexico.

The Texans can see the handwriting on the wall. On April 1^st, 1865, the State of Texas officially secedes from the Confederacy and becomes the Republic of Texas once again.

Large areas north of the 40^th parallel experience complete Aester blackouts lasting days or weeks. Most crops grown north of the 40^th parallel fail. Famine takes hold precipitating a mass migration southward. By midyear the migration had turned into a generalized panic north of 40.

The British Admiralty created the Royal Scientific Expeditionary Corps in conjunction with the Royal Academy of Science and the Royal Geographical Society. Expeditions depart for Halifax, Nova Scotia and Victoria, British Columbia to investigate the Aester.

The situation in Canada becomes dire with almost complete crop failures and winter conditions as early as April. The Governor General orders the evacuation of the Dominion of Canada with the exception of military and government personnel required to keep the government running.

French Canadians reassert their ties to France. French speaking populations move to Northern Mexico and Texas to add manpower to French claims in these areas.

Native Americans all over North America began reasserting their claims to traditional lands in 1865. The Iroquois Confederacy and their allies drive the remaining Americans out of northern New York. They retake all lands north of the Mohawk River from Lake Champlain to Lake Ontario and within the northern Adirondack mountains. Ottawa and Albany are evacuated after the Iroquois warn of dire consequences for any who remain in these cities.

The Sioux Nations and their allies drive all remaining Americans out of the northern central plains was. From Yellowstone in the west to the Missouri River in the East including the Black Hills almost to the northern border of Kansas, the Sioux and their allies drive the whites out with bullets, tomahawks and the points of lances.

Whites in areas around Mesa Verde in Colorado, Chaco Canyon and Taos Pueblo in New Mexico are driven out by the Great Navajo Nation and its allies.

Similar Native American uprisings in Mexico are viciously put down by the Mexican government.

With the disaster going on in the east, the state of California returns to Republic status and claims territorial rights to the Oregon Territory and western Mexico surrounding the Gulf of California.

The Mississippi River pushes over its banks beginning the formation of the Great Mississippi Bay. Miles of land are lost in a matter of days.

The Lincoln Administration applies to Great Britain for assistance and to allow American citizens to emigrate to British possessions in Australia and India.

The Royal Expeditionary Corps outposts are established in Victoria and Halifax by the end of the year. These facilities function to study and observe the Aester.

1866/PAe 4

Texas takes an unusual step and requests reintegration into the British Empire. The only way the Texans see being able to maintain some level of sovereignty is to have the assistance of the British, who are not involved in the war for Mexico. Great Britain agrees with the requirement that Texas frees their slaves. Texas is accepted into the British Commonwealth as the Dominion of Texas. The first act of the newly minted Dominion of Texas is to declare neutrality in the Franco Spanish conflict over Mexico.

The government of the State of New York moves to Staten Island.

The first city of the eastern seaboard to be completely evacuated is Boston.

On April 16^th, 1866, President Lincoln addresses a closed door session of both the House and the Senate and lays out his plan to request reintegration into the British Empire. To prevent another civil war that would spell the end of the United States, the Lincoln administration bribes, cajoles, coerces and downright bullies the members of Congress and House of Representatives into a unified front. On May 30^th, 1866, with the entirety of the House and Senate standing shoulder to shoulder with him, Lincoln makes his announcement to the American people.

On June the 8^st, 1866, President Abraham Lincoln sends an official letter to Queen Victoria requesting reintegration into the British Empire. This formal request makes the British Empire the largest on the planet with enormous holdings in every hemisphere of the globe.

Fall 1866

A human onslaught of the Confederate States of America begins. Hundreds of thousands of internal refugees join the human flood from the north as rising waters and food shortages acheive crisis levels all across Virginia and the Carolinas. The Confederate government is powerless to do anything in the face of such huge numbers of refugees. Under this assault, the structure and organization of Virginia and the Carolinas starts to fail and the Confederacy begins to crumble

October 28 1866 – A hurricane devastates the inundated eastern seaboard. The storm surge combined with higher sea levels causes total havoc and kills tens of thousands. From New York to Charleston almost everything is swamped as far as fifty miles inland.

1867/PAe5

January 22^nd 1867 – Britain accepts North America back into the fold of the Empire, creating British America.

March 1^st 1867 - President Lincoln assumes the duties of Governor General for British America and specifically the newly created Dominion of New England.

The Dominion of New England is created as the heart of British America, made up of the most populous and administratively organized states under Federal Government control.

Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Iowa make up this new province.

Panic spreads through the migrating populations throughout the Mississippi basin. The 2^nd Acadian Migration reverses course as hundreds of thousands begin to flee southward. The flooding Mississippi becomes choked with refugee traffic making its way south. Roads and rails become overrun by the tide of humanity fleeing the coming darkness. Numerous vessels are seized by panicked citizens and forced to navigate downriver. Many vessels are simply swamped or capsize due to being overloaded. Thousands die during the summer of 1867 all along the region adjacent to the Mississippi basin as a result of this southward migration.

All along the gulf coast and the eastern seaboard the death toll is staggering as the latest round of virulent diseases spread from the shallow, stagnant waters and the exploding population of mosquitoes.

Part of the result of this massive migration is a diaspora of Cajun and Creole populations all over the Caribbean and the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. This is the beginning of what comes to be known as the “Caribbean Culture” that now dominates much of the Caribbean and coast of the Gulf.

With the warmer weather of spring, a massive yellow fever outbreak occurs in the Potomac Basin. This outbreak becomes one of the most dangerous events in the history of both the fledgling British America and the Confederacy. Lincoln barely survives his brush with the dreaded disease but many in the government of British America are not so fortunate. Jefferson Davis is fortunate enough to escape unscathed by the epidemic, but the weakened state of even the leadership of the Confederacy leads to a catastrophic loss of twenty eight percent loss of the entire Confederate government. This loss of core leadership is something the Confederacy never recovers from. After this event, Lincoln immediately orders the government of British America moved west out of the low lying basins to minimize the effect of the devastating seasonal disease outbreaks on the government.

July - With great regret, the Confederate Federal Government makes the decision to relocate to Atlanta. Later that month, due to declining food availability, rising sea levels, loss of port facilities and increasing refugee problems, Confederate authorities order Richmond evacuated.

Spain, seeing the opportunity presented by the Confederate hardships, grants Confederate hardliners territorial rights in eastern Cuba.

Throughout the summer, the residents in the refugee camps become restive as a result of food shortages. The strained local authorities lose control of many camps due to difficulties supporting their own local populations.  In many cases, the refugees turn to violence resulting in riots and massacres of both refugees and local residents.

Slave revolts erupt all across the northern portion of the Confederacy in August and September. These revolts spread like wild-fire. Many white land owners who had previously been determined to remain behind are either killed or driven from their homes and off their lands by these mobs of slaves who loot and burn the properties, further reducing food production in the Confederacy.

Northern agitators, former soldiers and even officers of the Union bent on revenge for the Union’s loss in the Civil War make their way south among the refugees. These are not abolitionists but opportunists with an axe to grind. Among the flood of refugees from the north, they begin a campaign of vengeance against Confederate institutions, towns and citizens. In some cases, these groups form into sizeable forces composed of former Union officers and soldiers leading freed slaves. The results are devastating. Attempts to field Confederate forces to deal with this threat fail. What forces actually are able to be organized, equipped and get into the field are hampered by refugees who press them at every turn for assistance. This leads to forces having to battle refugees just to defend their own supplies. The only example of a Confederate army group engaging one of these slave armies ends in disaster for the Confederates. Once they committed to the battle with the lightly armed and poorly organized slaves, they were attacked by the rest of the force lead by uniformed Union cavalry officers leading a combination of white and black troopers on horseback. Confederate attempts to surrender are ignored and the column is slaughtered to a man.

Wide spread, violent rioting engulfs Raleigh North Carolina as slaves revolt. Many CSA citizens, white slave holders and officials are slaughtered. This leads to the total destruction of Raleigh. Relief forces from Greensborough find only ashes.

Enraged by the slave revolts, activities of northern agitators and then finally the atrocities committed in Raleigh, Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forest organizes the Klu Klux Klan to defend CSA citizens against the “unnatural rebellion” of the slaves and incursions by northern agitators into southern territory.

Lead by Stand Watie and his Indian Cavalry, Cherokees and their allies begin to move east from their relocation lands with the intent to retake their lands in the southern Appalachians, reversing the Trail of Tears.

The winters of 1867 and 1868 are marked by widespread famine that kills hundreds of thousands of refugees and locals alike.  Cholera, Typhus, Typhoid, Whooping Cough, Measles and Dysentery sweep through the weakened populations and kill tens of thousands more.

1868/PAe 6

New reports of dark masses of clouds forming over certain areas bring about widespread panic. These masses of clouds are reported forming over the Appalachian Mountains and upstate New York. Reports from Santa Fe describe massive clouds to the West that spin off violent storms that seemed to “Walk on legs of Lightning”. These clouds create violent short lived storms around them. Fort Victoria reports a pillar of clouds forming to the south that pushed downward to the ground over a period of several days. No one could deny the similarity of these newly forming clouds to the those that had spawned over the industrial cities forming the long strands of darkness that were now blanketing the upper latitudes. These clouds continue to darken and spread from these areas for years.

In response to the violence, lawlessness, and desperation that was now gripping the Confederacy, entire cities and towns throughout the south began to build defensive walls to prevent the starving hordes of refugees from stripping them and to defend themselves from attack by armies of lawless brigands.

Progressively, cities and large towns become walled and defended city states with the areas in between ungoverned. Cities like Memphis & Chattanooga TN, Birmingham & Montgomery AL, Raleigh & Charlotte NC, Atlanta, Augusta, Columbus & Macon GA, Columbus & Jackson MS, Columbia, SC, and Richmond, VA all eventually become able to hold their boundaries through the medieval system of walls and defenders. Overall, law only extended the distance of a cannon shot from the outskirts of these cities and each city becomes an independently governed entity with laws associated with it that were brought about by the necessity of location and situation. This means that some cities are quite peaceful and egalitarian while others degrade to brute despotism where leadership changes constantly base on who is the strongest or most ruthless.

The Dominion of Texas expands its borders to include the Indian Nation (Oklahoma Territory). As the situation in the Confederacy degrades, and the ever widening Mississippi grows, it becomes clear to everyone that the states of Arkansas and Louisiana cannot be assisted by the government of the Confederacy. Louisiana appeals for assistance to her neighbor to the west, the Dominion of Texas. Massive numbers of refugees were flooding west from Louisiana as it was. Short negotiations follow resulting in Louisiana becoming a part of the Dominion of Texas. Seeing similar problems and recognizing the clear degradation of the Confederate States government, Arkansas follows suit joining the Dominion of Texas under British rule.

Slaves are variously manumitted to serve and protect city states, slaughtered to prevent their turning on their former masters, or escape and revolt.  Very few actual functioning plantations remain at the end of the Rise.

In less than three years, literally hundreds of thousands of refugees die by the roads. Roads become lined with graves and later, unburied or exhumed corpses.  The dying is heaviest in the Border States; Tennessee, Virginia, northern North Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama.  Some of the same happens in southern Georgia and Central Florida. This results from residents of those states attempting to get to higher ground and dying either of disease, starvation or simple exposure along the way.  Even outside of these areas, most any major road is punctuated at frequent intervals by cairns and minimally marked graves.

Reports of cannibalism are followed by documented instances of it on a large scale.  When discovered, this tends to be dealt with ruthlessly and completely although many groups committing these acts escape detection.  Ghouls (people who eat the dead, but don't kill them) also become common, and in some cases, become almost socially acceptable, and are less severely dealt with.

France invades Cuba. This precipitates an offer of emancipation to slaves who agree to fight the French invasion and defend the fledgling Confederate holdings in Cuba. Slave regiments are raised in Atlanta Georgia and Columbia South Carolina. The Confederate Congress moves from Atlanta to Cuba, ostensibly to solidify claims to its holdings there. The reality is that Jefferson Davis and his administration can see that things are degrading rapidly and that administration of the Confederacy from Atlanta will quickly become impossible.

Upon this news reaching General Bedford Forrest and his KKK followers, they immediately renounce the Davis administration and claim leadership of what they call the “True Confederacy”. They begin to attack Confederate towns who they believe are supporting the “Unnatural Uprising” of the blacks. This begins a terrible schism in the Confederacy and a full fledged internal war between Bedford Forrest, his KKK forces and sympathizers against the weakened Confederate government. This state of war means that Bedford Forrest and his forces attack towns, cities and anyone they believe may support anything that goes counter to their own beliefs. As awful as things have been, the schism adds a horrific chapter to this period of Confederate history. Countless innocent Blacks, Catholics, Jews and those who defended them or were suspected of aiding them were slaughtered.

Nathan Bedford Forrest gains the moniker “Butcher Bedford” as his forces rampage across the disintegrating Confederacy.

August 3^rd, 1868 - The Dominion of Texas finishes negotiations for the withdrawal of all French forces out of its borders with the assistance of British Troops brought in from Canada. The final stages of the withdrawal are “assisted” by British Troops and Royal Texan Army forces.

The Cherokee migration crosses the Mississippi basin continuing its march east. The Cherokee are joined by starving, disaffected whites, former slaves and thousands of others seeking some kind of life that is not simply fleeing and dying.

The Franco California Conflict begins as the Army of the Republic of California pushes south to take the Baja Peninsula. A large fleet of warships from along the coast of California converge in the Gulf of California to protect their gains and prepare the way to seize the mainland side of the Gulf. The entire region is lightly garrisoned and these forces are quickly overrun by the Californians pushing them back to the Mountains in the east and entirely out of the peninsula by the end of the year.

The era known as “THE QUIET” begins at the end of 1868. Estimates vary, but the agreed upon figure is that ten percent or less of populations above forty degrees North remain by the end of the year.

1869/PAe 7

Spain and the former Spanish colonies in the Western Tropics consolidate into the Hispanic League on January 22^nd 1869

February 10^th, The Confederate Congress moves from Atlanta to Cuba. Reports that Bedford Forrest and the KKK are moving toward Atlanta with the intent of taking the Confederate government forces the Davis administration to remove themselves from the city. From this point forward the Confederate seat of government will reside in Havana, Cuba.

On March the 2^nd, General Bedford Forrest, at the head of his KKK army, arrives in Atlanta to capture the Confederate government. They are frustrated when they learn that Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress have already fled the city. The city pays a terrible price for this frustration. Bedford Forrest and the other KKK leaders call Atlanta the “Seat of unnatural government” and the leader of “servile insurrection” for their role in raising slave regiments and offering freedom to those who serve. He orders the city razed. Over the next five days, Atlanta is systematically sacked and burned. What few citizens remain in the city and who survive those terrible days report unimaginable atrocities. Lynched men, both black and white, are described as “..hanging from every tree and post.” In the city.

In response to the destruction of Atlanta, Bedford Forrest and the KKK are declared outlaws by the Confederacy and the city states move to take action against them. The city states raise regiments to hunt down and destroy the KKK army. Within months, northern slave regiments and the regiments raised from the city states begin to scour the Confederacy looking for the KKK army. By June, the KKK army is on the run, hounded at every turn by regiments, militia and mobs.

On July 1^st, 1869, the main force of the KKK army stands its ground against a large combined army of regiments from Macon Georgia, and Huntsville Alabama. The city state regiments are joined by an ad hoc army of northern slave regiments. The KKK army is outnumbered two to one, but by the end of the day the army of city state regiments and northern slave regiments is shattered. Bedford Forrest out generals the ad hoc coalition breaking the strongest concentration of forces arrayed against him since the beginning of the war.

By mid August, Stand Watie and the Cherokee arrive at the western edge of the southern Appalachians.  By the time they arrive, their numbers have increased ten fold. The Cherokee migration now includes Indians from the Creek and Seminole tribes as well as the remains of numerous other tribes, the so called “Black Cherokee”, former slaves who have been adopted by the Cherokee, Creole, Cajuns and Germans from Texas as well as thousands of other disenfranchised whites. As the Cherokee migration has proceeded and grown, it has been continuously reorganized along military lines. Stand Watie and his core Cherokee cavalrymen have enforced a highly regimented lifestyle onto all those with them to provide a level of security to the large migrating population. Ranging parties have continually been on the move to locate and bring in food and other resources needed to keep the migration alive. One of those resources has been firearms and ammunition. By the time they reach the southernmost tip of the Appalachians, the Cherokee are one of the most formidable forces extant in the Confederacy.

On September 18^th, in a twist of fate, the KKK army runs headlong into Stand Watie’s forces. Hounded by northern slave regiments and reorganized city state regiments, the KKK army attempts to break through the Cherokee. Initially, brilliant leadership by General Forrest punches a hole through the center of Stand Watie’s forces. As they try to exploit the gap, the combined Cherokee forces regroup trapping over two thirds of the Forest’s forces within an alley between the formerly split forces. The KKK forces are wiped out as elements of the slave regiments arrive and slaughter every man. The lead elements break away but are then trapped by a swollen river and stone bluffs with Stand Watie’s Cavalry hot on their heels. Trapped against the river, the KKK fight for their lives. After a short but bloody fight, the trapped lead elements of the KKK army are captured by Stand Watie, elements of his Indian cavalry and the Black Cherokee. Nathan Bedford Forrest is taken prisoner. In addition to General Forrest, less than 60 men survive the engagement with the Cherokee combined forces.

With the destruction of the KKK army, the city states form permanent regiments for their defense and the defense of their interests. Over the next year, Confederate government administration of the city states degrades to the point that they are no longer considered to be under the control of Confederate authority but are now independently governed.

1870 is the year that the Confederacy is considered to cease to exist. Thereafter, it is referred to as the “Former Confederacy” by all agencies other than the Confederate Congress in Cuba.

1870/PAe 8

France requests aid from Great Britain against the Hispanic League. France and Britain sign the treaty on February 1^st 1870. As part of the treaty France cedes all territory north of the Tropic of Cancer to the western boundary of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains to the Dominion of Texas. This acquisition makes the Dominion of Texas the second largest holding in British America, second only to the Dominion of Canada in land mass. Britain cedes control of British Honduras to the French government as part of the treaty.

France makes peace with California ceding all territory north of the Tropic of Cancer west of the Sierra Madre Occidental Mountains to the Republic of California thus divesting itself of all holdings in Northern Mexico.

By the end of 1870, the City States of the Former Confederacy begin to function as truly autonomous entities with laws and political structures that have nothing to do with the Confederacy. The ability to maintain order can now only be done within close proximity to the city walls and defensive structures, all other areas of the Former Confederacy fall into lawlessness.

Leaders from the Huntsville Alabama and Athens Georgia City States send messages to Stand Watie to try and engage the Cherokee leadership in peace talks. The newly founded “Panther Nation” rebuffs these entreaties. Peace envoys are sent directly to meet with him at the traditional Cherokee Nation capital at New Echota, Georgia. While treated well and with respect, the reception is anything but welcoming. The only meeting with the Cherokee leadership offers only one consistent theme that is stated implicitly by Stand Watie at the beginning of the meeting.

“There is nothing the Indians now desire of the Whites but to be left alone”.

The Panther Nation remains in isolation for the next 40 years, defending their borders with naked force. The population of the Nation continues to increase as former slaves and disaffected whites are adopted into the tribes and Nation only having to renounce loyalty to anything other than the Panther Nation.

Continued in Section 2