United States of America

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>United States of America</default></title>

<image source="image"><default>File:Placeholder location.png</default></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label> </infobox> The United States of America, also known as the United States or just the USA, is the country in which much of Worm takes place. It is situated on Earth Bet.

Description

America was the most powerful country in the world.<ref name="I15.z"/><ref name="17.6"/> They were home to the Protectorate, who were responsible for 25-50% of the defending side against Endbringers in fights outside of North America.<ref name="19.y"/> The PRT is legally considered a paramilitary (that is, organized like military but not explicit US Military) grouping of law enforcement, akin to SWAT, with a code of justice modeled loosely after the military one. Congress has the power to stipulate the laws governing them and the executive the power to direct the PRT. The Protectorate, Wards, and Watchdog programs, among others, fall under the umbrella of this organization. <ref>The PRT is a paramilitary (that is, organized like military but not explicit US Military) grouping of law enforcement, akin to SWAT. The Protectorate, Wards, and Watchdog programs, among others, fall under the umbrella of this paramilitary organization. Because of the stipulations, regulations, the justice system for the powered, and the international actions that the Protectorate may take, there is a code of justice modeled loosely after the military one, giving Congress the power to stipulate the laws, and the executive the power to direct - but while they may be treated like military in many respects, this doesn't make the PRT military, and barring certain specific deployments, it doesn't make the Protectorate military either. - Wildbow on Reddit</ref>

The United States had strong traditions of capitalism<ref name="I15.z"/> and democracy.<ref>Excerpt from Monarch 16.8</ref>

Laws

The Protectorate and PRT were founded as US organizations under President James Griffin,<ref>Excerpt from Interlude 24.x</ref><ref name="I15.z">Excerpt from Interlude 15.z</ref> although they later expanded to Canada.<ref>Gestation 1.6</ref>

The United States briefly adopted a policy of tattooing Simurgh victims with a white bird on one hand or on one arm so others would know to take care. The policy lasted for four years, covering two of the Endbringer's visits to the US, including Madison Wisconsin. It caused prejudice and violence against those affected, and many others got similar tattoos in protest.<ref>Doctor Foster had been asked to keep an eye on those being released from the city’s quarantine. Each individual got a tattoo of a bird on one hand or on one arm, marking them as someone affected by the Simurgh.

It had been a short-lived policy, covering only two of the Simurgh’s visits to America in the span of four years. Shortly after the second event, the idea was abandoned. The idea, that people could take extra caution around anyone with a tattoo of a white bird, only generated prejudice. The affected individuals couldn’t find work, they were beaten and they had their lives threatened.

The outcry had meant it was hard to spread the word about what the tattoos were intended for, and the problem was further exacerbated when some people had started getting the tattoos as a matter of protest. In some poll a year back, something like six out of ten people had been unable to say why the tattoos existed.

But it wasn’t likely that the tattoos were why the Doctor had been asked to oversee this situation. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref>

Thanks in part due to outside actors the United States has a tighter gun control policy then seen in Earth Aleph,<ref name="R2">Parahumans might elicit a desire for more guns - but Cauldron had a hand in wanting there to be much less. It's in their interests for the debate and culture to go one way, so there's less parahumans dying at the hands of civilian vigilantes. So things get nudged here and there, the guys who get sniper rifles and go after prominent heroes have a way of failing spectacularly. Gun manufacture and distribution/sale gets some nudges and it's harder to get new guns, and politicians with certain stances succeed, which impacts things on the legislative/judicial side of things. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref><ref name="R1">PRT taps New York and Watchdog, they have thinker resources to zero in on the snipers. You get a team of investigators backed by thinkers and other resources finding the sniper, and then tracing it back to the source.

Coil has snipers. He also has a deeper awareness than most of what the PRT does and how they would handle a situation like this. He knows better.

To the PRT, on the surface, they've got a villain that's getting too big for their boots, who're eliminating competition, breaking the rules, and who could very easily be willing to escalate to start targeting heroes. A murder out in public is very visible and newsworthy, and people in the public get scared. It's controversial. They don't want things to escalate.

To the PRT, more behind the scenes, they have a vested interest in the balance and the unwritten rules. They want to keep parahuman numbers up. So they have task forces who are exclusively trained to keep stuff like this from coming about.

With the PRT, even ~more~ behind the scenes, you've got Cauldron. Cauldron doesn't want people going out and pulling this for many reasons - capes strong enough to warrant a sniper instead of a normal beatdown are capes Cauldron wants in the final confrontation. This is the sort of thing Contessa is regularly tackling - figuring out how to shut down elements like anti-parahuman hate groups and people who start using snipers.

So people try to pull this and events conspire against them and they miss the shot. The incident gets reported, the target lives, the PRT cracks down on them, and the gang leader who put the money out there gets crucified, so to speak.

And the shot might land sometimes, but the target lives without being much worse for wear, and the repercussions are dramatic. The investigatory team has a pretty damn smooth investigation in finding the culprit. With enough repetitions, the narrative is effectively set. Someone gets the bright idea and then their underling says, "Didn't you hear what happened to King Krunch in Phoenix? Or that Truth Seeker guy? It's not like it is in the movies. I hear most people with the qualifications won't even take the job if the target doesn't have a kill order."

[...]

The whole point was to select a target that cannot survive a head shot

The shot might land sometimes, but gee, look at that. A bird flies across your field of view at the wrong moment, or your target sees someone and slows at the wrong moment. Your shot hits but catches them in a shoulder. The opportunity is missed.

You got Path-to-sniper-no-sniping'ed and you don't even know it.

Any comment on why there are no civilians/baseline humans trying something?

'No' might be an exaggeration.

In general? Frog in a pot of boiling water. Society changed, society adapted, and past incidences of backlash were muted and unsuccessful (at least in the US). Media, government, law, entertainment, and careful pruning by the bogeyman are all pushing against the anti-parahuman sentiment. - Another comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> with fewer guns in civilian hands.

The United States has become a major resettlement area for refugees of failed states and areas devastated by Endbringers and the like. The Preservation Act, legislation signed during the Bradley administration, helping such people to get on their feet.<ref name="15.5 c1.1">Fantastic question, and one I’m not sure I can give a fantastic answer to.

Why is that? Well, primarily, there’s the issue of trying to quantify ‘damage’. As stated in Legend’s pre-battle speech (early in arc 8) there’s almost always grievous losses but they aren’t always the same sort of losses.

You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu.

But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet.

Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? Ditto for Mannequin and the Simurgh.

But that’s only the major hits, the broad strokes of the brush and all the repercussions/spatter that follows from that. Attacks end in other ways, for example. Legend mentions mass loss of life. There’s economic damage that follows from that, disease and explosions in the population of vermin when a quarter million people die in a concentrated area.

There’s the deaths of countless heroes, and how that biases things further towards the general villain population. If the selfless throw their lives away for the greater good and it’s primarily the selfish (or the very powerful) who are left, how does that skew things?

And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater.

I digress.

To answer your question in the general sense? Relatively few places have been hit as hard as the major examples listed above. But figure this has been going on for 20ish years. Behemoth shows up in the early 90’s, attacking once a year, roughly (twice in 1994), Leviathan shows up in the mid 90’s (now we’re up to 2-3 Endbringer attacks a year), and Simurgh comes in just after the turn of the century (now 3-4).

I mentioned in a comment during the Endbringer arc, but I said something like ‘Behemoth is the cape-killer and Leviathan levels cities’. Figure each Endbringer has attacked 16 to 20 times so far, account for the bias towards killing capes (Behemoth) vs. wiping out landscapes (Leviathan) and that Brockton Bay is pretty middle-of-the-road for the kind of aftermath you see, and maybe you can make an estimate.

Ballparking it? 8 or 9 Endbringer attacks in America over 20 years. - Comment by WildBow on Colony 15.5</ref> This policy allows capes such as Miss Militia to obtain citizenship with ease.<ref>She was taken to the bathroom, patted down on her re-entry to the interrogation room, and they found the same gun on her that they’d taken away just half an hour ago.
Everything else had happened very fast, after that. It was an American in a military uniform that rescued her. He took her to America, saw that she was put with a family there. When the first three Wards teams were established, she was enlisted. - excerpt from Interlude 7</ref>

Residents

• Protectorate
• The Elite<ref>Interlude 21.x</ref>
• The Fallen

Points of Interest

• Anchorage
• Boston
• Brockton Bay
• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Las Vegas
• New York
• Philadelphia
• Seattle
• Houston

History

Background

Brockton Bay was founded as a big trading post and port back when America was being colonized.<ref>Excerpt from Tangle 6.2</ref>

Vikare, the first superhero, operated in Michigan, and set the tone for a brief-lived Golden Age of Parahumans.<ref name="1.x">Excerpt from interlude 1.x</ref>

During the Cold War, Scion destroyed a nuclear test missile and the facility that launched it. This wasn't widely known, but it led the US to de-emphasize nuclear weapons under the (correct) belief that he would stop any nuclear conflict, effectively ending the Cold War.<ref name="SB1">That's essentially it. Scion was stopping raiding groups and paramilitary groups in Africa and the Middle East, and then began to respond to weapon testing in much the same way. Scion shot down one test missile from a country away and then hit the launch facility. This wasn't widely publicized, but it did have ripple effects in terms of culture and America's military spending/focus.

Part of Scion's motivation in doing so was to prevent a scenario where the shards couldn't find hosts (for much the same reason, he would have gone out of his way to stop, say, String Theory). Part was Norton's instructions. But the countries basically realized that it wouldn't work. - Comment by Wildbow (archived on Spacebattles)</ref> Although the details weren't publicized, it was generally known that the threat of Scion was what led nuclear powers to stand down.<ref name="15.y e1">Unlike the major players in the Cold War, the monsters he was thinking about weren’t so rational that they’d stand down with Scion in the picture. - Excerpt from Interlude 15.y</ref>

The Protectorate and PRT were founded as US organizations under President James Griffin,<ref>Excerpt from Interlude 24.x</ref><ref name="I15.z"/> although they later expanded to Canada.<ref>Gestation 1.6</ref>

Dragon was forbidden from using viruses to infect the computers of Americans that didn’t have a warrant out for their arrests. She later found a way around this, making use of computers she allowed an Indonesian cartel to infect.<ref> - Excerpt from Interlude 26.x</ref>

The United States briefly adopted a policy of tattooing Simurgh victims with a white bird on one hand or on one arm so others would know to take care. The policy lasted for four years, covering two of her visits to the US, including Madison. It caused prejudice and violence against those affected, and many others got similar tattoos in protest.<ref>Doctor Foster had been asked to keep an eye on those being released from the city’s quarantine. Each individual got a tattoo of a bird on one hand or on one arm, marking them as someone affected by the Simurgh.

It had been a short-lived policy, covering only two of the Simurgh’s visits to America in the span of four years. Shortly after the second event, the idea was abandoned. The idea, that people could take extra caution around anyone with a tattoo of a white bird, only generated prejudice. The affected individuals couldn’t find work, they were beaten and they had their lives threatened.

The outcry had meant it was hard to spread the word about what the tattoos were intended for, and the problem was further exacerbated when some people had started getting the tattoos as a matter of protest. In some poll a year back, something like six out of ten people had been unable to say why the tattoos existed.

But it wasn’t likely that the tattoos were why [Christof] had been asked to oversee this situation. - Excerpt from Interlude 18.f</ref>

Teacher killed the Vice President of America before fleeing to the United Kingdom.<ref>Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.2</ref>

When a portal to Earth Aleph was created in the US by Professor Haywire, treaties were made to prevent them finding a way to invade the alternate Earth with the help of parahumans and acquiring their resources, becoming the world's greatest superpower. All attempts to transmit people or objects between the worlds were banned.<ref name="17.6"/>

The United States clamped down on gun control policy,<ref name="R2"/><ref name="R1"/>, it is unknown how this has affected illegal gun running.

The United States has become a major resettlement area for refugees of failed states and areas devastated by Endbringers and the like. With the Preservation Act, legislation signed during the Bradley administration, helping such people to get on their feet.<ref name="15.5 c1.1">Fantastic question, and one I’m not sure I can give a fantastic answer to.

Why is that? Well, primarily, there’s the issue of trying to quantify ‘damage’. As stated in Legend’s pre-battle speech (early in arc 8) there’s almost always grievous losses but they aren’t always the same sort of losses.

You have the events that left the world reeling: Lausanne, Hawaii, Kyushu, Newfoundland, Moscow, Sydney. The attacks that left major areas uninhabitable or unrecoverable, with wide-reaching effects on the rest of the country/region/world. In this setting, for example, Japan isn’t a world power and it’s still dependent on international assistance 12 years after Leviathan’s visit to Kyushu.

But even there, where do you say, “Ok, that’s the sum total of the damage done”? The disaster at Kyushu, the number of refugees seeking living space/work and the pressures on the rest of Asia’s pacific border might have led to some more unrest and tension. Some friction, some ‘small’ wars, infighting and intermingling. Refugees and immigrants. Many settle in major cities across America because President Bradley’s Preservation Act gives them a hand in getting on their feet.

Do you factor that last point into the damage as well? Lung comes to Brockton Bay in part because of the booming population of Asian immigrants (which hasn’t yet set down roots). Bakuda was born to a Westerner mother and Immigrant father. Do you count the damage they’ve done? Ditto for Mannequin and the Simurgh.

But that’s only the major hits, the broad strokes of the brush and all the repercussions/spatter that follows from that. Attacks end in other ways, for example. Legend mentions mass loss of life. There’s economic damage that follows from that, disease and explosions in the population of vermin when a quarter million people die in a concentrated area.

There’s the deaths of countless heroes, and how that biases things further towards the general villain population. If the selfless throw their lives away for the greater good and it’s primarily the selfish (or the very powerful) who are left, how does that skew things?

And I should stress that weak points aren’t necessarily just areas which are geographically vulnerable. There’s places where there’s ongoing conflict (like we might point to the middle east over the past decade), places where it takes little effort on the part of the Endbringer to deal maximum devastation (ie. a nuclear power plant, military bases) and spots where a great many resources are invested (be they great minds collected in one place or major projects like Dr. Gramme’s major projects in trying to save the world). Did anyone else catch the mention of the water crisis? Leviathan isn’t always attacking cities, and the world has only so much accessible freshwater.

I digress.

To answer your question in the general sense? Relatively few places have been hit as hard as the major examples listed above. But figure this has been going on for 20ish years. Behemoth shows up in the early 90’s, attacking once a year, roughly (twice in 1994), Leviathan shows up in the mid 90’s (now we’re up to 2-3 Endbringer attacks a year), and Simurgh comes in just after the turn of the century (now 3-4).

I mentioned in a comment during the Endbringer arc, but I said something like ‘Behemoth is the cape-killer and Leviathan levels cities’. Figure each Endbringer has attacked 16 to 20 times so far, account for the bias towards killing capes (Behemoth) vs. wiping out landscapes (Leviathan) and that Brockton Bay is pretty middle-of-the-road for the kind of aftermath you see, and maybe you can make an estimate.

Ballparking it? 8 or 9 Endbringer attacks in America over 20 years. - Comment by WildBow on Colony 15.5</ref> This allows Capes such as Miss Militia to obtain citizenship with ease. While trade was impacted in part by Leviathan attacking port cities he did not attack individual ships as such international trade is intact, if battered.

Political activists across the country were empowered by having parahumans in their ranks and at their head.<ref>Europe saw political upheaval, Russia enlisted parahumans into its military and started hunting down those who wouldn’t enlist, activists across the United States were emboldened by leaders with powers. - Excerpt from Interlude 14.z II</ref> Many many other groups found themselves with a voice where they didn't have one before.<ref name=politics>It's worth stating that one of the underling ideas driving the formation of groups and ideological factions in the Wormverse is the notion that some people get a voice where they otherwise wouldn't. Give an immense amount of power to a (relatively) random section of the population and you'll see certain shifts in the overlying sentiments.

All the more so when you think that a parahuman with aspirations might latch on to an idea, concept, or group to get reputation, resources, and contacts. - Comment by Wildbow on Sufficient Velocity</ref>

Legislation covered supervillain rampages and more with Three Strikes Protection Act and for when such people were sentenced to the Birdcage.

By 2009 there was a President Gillen in the White House.<ref name="17.3 e1">He thought back to the bird in the cage, and the bloody newspaper that it had been standing on. He’d only been able to read part of the headline. President Gillen orders… - Excerpt from Migration 17.3</ref> Gillen took proactive, though some considered reactive, stances against Endbringers.<ref name="17.4 e1">“No,” Myrddin agreed. “This is a bad one. Too many possible avenues to cover, too much exposure time across the board.”

“We’re doubling down quarantine, and we’ll have a processing center in place shortly. The President is pushing the D.D.I.D measure.”

“It’s going to backfire,” Myrddin said. “I’ve said it before, I’ll say it now, and I’ll remind you all I said it with every chance I get, from now until the day I die. It’s going to backfire.” - Excerpt from Migration 17.4</ref>. It was unknown if this was his first or second term.

Story Start

Bakuda created a bomb that would have wiped out electronics across a full fifth of America, but she was defeated before it could detonate.<ref name="6.x">Excerpt from Interlude 6</ref>

Post-Battle against Leviathan

People across the United States watched the aftermath of Leviathan's Attack on Brockton Bay, wondering if it would become another area that simply couldn't recover.<ref name="13.x">Interlude 13.x</ref> The United States Senate debated condemning the city.<ref>Excerpt from Monarch 16.9</ref>

The Undersiders took over Brockton Bay, an event which made them famous across America.<ref name="21.1">Excerpt from Imago 21.1</ref><ref>Excerpt from Cell 22.1</ref><ref>Excerpt from Interlude 22.x</ref> The PRT later argued that this constituted effectively declaring war on the government of the US.<ref>Excerpt from Cell 22.2</ref>

Post-Echidna

Faultline’s Crew agreed to create portals to alternate Earths across North America at a discount to help prepare for the End of the World.<ref>Excerpt from Scarab 25.5</ref>

The Timeskip

America and the CUI had a brief conflict in 2012 after the Protectorate accidentally killed the incognito CUI heir during a Simurgh attack.<ref>Excerpt from Scarab 25.6</ref>

Teams from across America came to fight the Slaughterhouse Nine-Thousand.<ref>Excerpt from Sting 26.4</ref>

Gold Morning

The CUI attacked American settlements in other worlds, not having created any of their own.<ref>Excerpt from Cockroaches 28.1</ref>

Early Ward

Original United States were reduced to inhospitable landscape with ruined or crumbling cities and roaming threats from breached PRT-quarantine zones. At the second year surviving population is still migrating to Gimel.US.<ref>Flare 2.1</ref>

Machine Army expanded north past Raleigh chasm, marking at least half of North Caroline and a chunk of southern states as uninhabitable.<ref>Interlude 3 II</ref>

Post-Attack on Teacher

The Machine Army expanded to Boston.<ref name="16.2II">From Within 16.2</ref>

Trivia

• This article is About the United States of Earth Bet.
• The America of Earth Bet has dollar coins instead of notes.<ref name="17.6"> Excerpt from Migration 17.6</ref> It has a different president to that of Earth Aleph.<ref>Excerpt from Migration 17.3</ref>
• Parahumans Online has a sub-board dedicated to discussing events taking place in America.<ref name="19.y"> Excerpt from Interlude 19.y</ref>

References

<references/>