Gridlink

The State of Things

Canada

Canada has becoming something of a superpower, even absorbing the state of Alaska. It's currency (the Canadian Dollar, CAD) is one of the world's major traded currency.

China

China has split into a number of independent countries. Many other Asian nations have annexed various former Chinese provinces. (Notably, Japan's annexation of islands in the Sea of Japan.)

East Europe

Romanian Republic States

The Romanian Republic States (RSS) now control much of Ukraine and Moldova is one of their protectorates, so the country is a lot richer than it has been in the past. Romania has so far resisted Imperial Sovereign Kazakh (ISS) takeover, in part due to an alliance with West Russian troops (who maintain a solid presence in the Bashkir region). The Khanti-Mansiyskie East Socialist States (KMESS) has trade relations with the RSS, but West Russia and Kazakh ISS both maintain strong blockades - the former economically, the latter militarily.

01[21:16] <~corporalcoin> HCS are also called "Afacere ploioasa". A-fa-chair plo-io-sa.
01[21:17] <~corporalcoin> This literally translates in English as a "wet job".
01[21:20] <~corporalcoin> The locals will moslty speak Romanian, most ousiders will seak the others.
01[21:20] <~corporalcoin> *speak
01[21:20] <~corporalcoin> English is spoken fluently by at least 6 billion people and is the Lingua Franca.
01[21:23] <~corporalcoin> Roughly 45% of Romanians speak standard English fluently, with a further 5% knowing solely how to read and type it. Dialectile English is common at another 15%, with a particular focus on internet English, AKA Grigg's English.
01[21:24] <~corporalcoin> 98% of Romanians speak Romanian.
01[21:27] <~corporalcoin> (Also: "Probabil Lupta Situatzie" is Romanian for High Combat Situation.)

Deva

Deva, Romania has a lot of the feel of Hong Kong, Las Vegas, or Birmingham, with shining lights and skyscrapers. It was also contender for capital of the RRS after the bombing of Bucharest. It's a very high tech down, with high population density. English, Russian, German, Hebrew and Romanian are all languages that one might encounter.

Khanti-Mansiyskie East Socialist States

The KMESS is pretty much everything east of the Khanti-Mansiyskie region. In the last 200 years, it's been a massive site of immigration out of the simple presence of so much space to actually live, though there's a lot more urbanization throughout the KMESS. The TriRussian Split was an incredibly significant historical event that caused a snowballing of East European states into war and takeover, reaching into the rest of the world. The Khanti-Mansiyskie states cover all of Siberia and most of the Far Eastern federal district, as well as most of the Ural federal District (Again, considering that which is north and east of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous region, The TriRussian Split is very important. It has affected the world more than the American and Chinese splits, or the forming of the newer states and empires.

France

France has ceded a small region to form a separate Islamic state that lives in relative peace.

Germany

Germany has become the major power in Europe. Both English and German are official languages.

Jordan

Jordan has joined with Israel.

USA

The United States of America has divided into two nations. The New Confederate States of America (largely composed of southern states) and the Union of Northeastern Republics (composed of New York, New England states, the northern Mid-Atlantic States (Pennsylvania, Delaware, possibly Maryland) and the Rust Belt states). California is a war zone, the borders of which are highly disputed. Alaska has joined with Canada.

Off world

There are a few off-world colonies, mainly lunar or Lagrangian. Mars has proven too far from the Sun for current terraforming technology. There is (at least) one world terraformed, this is an expensive process and the joint venture is bankrolled by Canada, Germany and Japan (they also maintain a controlling interest in the planet).
There is an orbital ring around the Sun, which collects energy that would otherwise be wasted and beams it back to Earth and orbital colonies.

Xenosophonts

The idea of a SKREEE alien is pretty popular. A native animal on the planet Discovery (humans are such fags for names like that) are often portrayed as them in fiction, though they're only as scary as an earth Tiger.
There's what some call the Sky Manta, which fed on the native tribes of Newfoundworld. That's pretty close to a Cliff Racer, but it's pretty easily beaten with advanced technology such as "a roof". � Earth has found nine planets that naturally sustain life, and, obviously, exploits the shit out of them. Two of them have sentient life, one has sapient life somewhere around the level of a human child, and the rest have varying levels of indigenous life. Discovery Natives tend to be the most common aliens other than humans, and there's not that many of them; you may have met one or two.

Economics

The ¥€$ - Yes- is the global currency. Most countries refer to them still as "Dollars", "Euros", or "Yen". Major currencies are the Swiss New Franc, the Euro-American ¥€$, the HK-AU Dollar, the South Chinese Wulong, the Israeli Shekel, and the Canadian Dollar. The Pound is used in the UK and India, and the HK-AU Dollar Hong Kong and Australia. All three currencies - Dollars and Pounds- are interchangeable in these nations. Hong Kong nominally rejoined the UK, India unofficially, and the UK and Australia in part cooperating for financial benefit.
Oil, Natural gas, and natural Coal are rare and expensive, though Coal is easier to synthesize.

Technology

Climate

Global warming hasn't killed us all only on account of clever application of technology; climates are about the same as they are now, for most places.

Energy

We tend to use small-scale fusion power, surprisingly. It's proven easier to use smaller reactors than larger ones, so small fusion reactors tend to power groups of houses, large vehicles, or such. So, what do drones and cars and the like run on? Piezoceramic batteries. Highly pressurized layers of ceramic and lithium containing more charge than seems right. Do NOT break the small mirror! There is the equivalent of a laser in there!

Sophonts

AIs exist. A few orangutans and dolphins now have evolved enlarged language centres, partially due to South American experiments. In 2183, an orangutan known as "Genio" was unveiled in Nicaragua; he was fully able to use sign language, understood fluent Spanish, and read voraciously. He was nonetheless the only real success from their experiments. Some genetic experiments have lead to extremely smart dogs, but nothing up to the level of the aforementioned examples. Sentience and sapience take a while to evolve, and human dickery doesn't seem to work too well in hastening it.