Editing Degenesis (section)

==Cultures==
===Borca===
Borca is the heart of what remains of European civilization, geographically including Germany, the Low Countries, and Denmark (though the latter three have been mostly subsumed into the Stukov Desert formed by the dried English Channel). The region is split in half by the Reaper's Blow, a fracture line from the Eshaton that cracked open the crust and opened it to magma. West and East Borca stand fairly distinct as a result, despite their shared heritage. 

West Borca is a scrapper's paradise; while the forests are long dead or never existed, the ruins of the Bygone are everywhere. West Borca is also home to Justitian, the center of power for the Judges, Spitalians, and Chroniclers alike and the seat of the Protectorate. The closest thing to a metropolis left in Europe after the collapse, almost all of the cults mingle in Justitian, though the Chroniclers and Judges isolate themselves above the others. The Protectorate and Justitian alike are beset by threats from inside and out; the local Clans oppose the Protectorate in skirmishes, Sepsis crept into settlements and is barely held at bay as it festers, and even Justitian's people complain of their exploitation by the Chroniclers. But for now, Justitian holds. The Anabaptists also hold power in the area in Cathedral City, while odd Clanners excavate the ruins of the Bygone in Exalt. 

East Borca is less civilized. The Chroniclers hold little influence, while the natural world has taken back the earth. The Jehammedan hold power in Osman, the Eastern equivalent to Justitian; however, the city is under siege, apparently by the Corroded, a Marauder who led the Clans to conquer the advanced fortress-republic of Praha with ease. Justitian fears the same will come to them eventually.

Key to the passage between regions is Hellvetica, the fortified Alps under Hellvetic rule. Their strongholds guarantee secure passage between West and East Borca, as well as Purgare and Pollen; however, the passage does not come free of charge.

===Franka===
France lost to the Sepsis. The Central Massif took a direct hit that coated the land and infected insect life, pushing humanity to the brink. When the Pheromancers emerged and cleared away the insect plagues, uneasy acceptance came. By the time their powers were known, the Frankans had fallen under their spell entirely. African raiders looted Franka of all of its Bygone technology, meeting no resistance; nothing remains for the Scrappers. Franka is one of the few places in Europe where humanity and homo degenesis live alongside one another, though the humans are little but drones in the thrall of Pheromancers.

Resistance still exists, of course, with the aid of the Anubians. They alone can produce the oils that resist pheromone influences. Those who anoint themselves with it and strike into Souffrance burn out the Pheromancers' tunnels and towers. The Clans bring pesticides into the heart of Parasite (Paris). The Anabaptists and Spitalians tear down the ziggurats the Pheromancers build. The flood is unending, but a handful of sites resist; Anabaptists hold out in Brest, Rennes, St. Brieuc, and the Aquitaine region, motivated for survival by apocalyptic predictions.

Few ways in and out of Franka exist. The Passage North to Britain is lost to the swarms of Parasite. Hellvetic territory borders on Franka at Borderpost South, an outpost and decontamination center that serves as the last Borcan foothold in Franka. In the very south, free Franka resists in Toulouse and Aquitaine. Here, Europe meets its African neighbors for wary trade, and the Chroniclers pick over the wreckage that washes up from the Atlantic.

===Pollen===
The rise of Pollen's Sepsis stemmed from the Pollner's search for the strength to survive the apocalypse. Pollners infected by the Sepsis survived more easily in the winter; their children were adapted to Pollen's frozen wastes, even as their bones deformed and their spirits were corrupted. The "leechers" were the first stage of Sepsis's hold on Pollen, and they grew into Biokinetics away from humanity. Then Discordance came; the Psychovores and the Psychonauts met one another, shattering the links that held the collective together. Artificial Discordance sown by Spitalians served to slow Sepsis even further. The war between the Psychovore and Sepsis gave rise to the "fractal forests", bizarre forests that Pollner clans rely on to exist born from Psychovore infection of Sepsis spore fields. Pollen's state as a battleground makes it surprisingly profitable to the Apocalyptics; Burn (the drug derived from Sepsis spores) grows readily in Pollen and is essentially an everyday substance, making the perfect site to start smuggling to the rest of Europe.

The Hellvetics grant access into Pollen, though much of what lies in Hellvetic reach is burnt and destroyed by the march of the Corroded. Wroclaw hosts Neolibyan envoys, but stands otherwise isolated and impenetrable to the cults; only the merchant's quarter is open to outsiders. Danzig is nearly buried beneath the ice sheets from the north but hosts a Spitalian research center that seeks to create immunity to the Primer. Far to the east, the Spore Wall creates a barrier across Poland and Ukraine, isolating Asia from the West entirely.

===Balkhan===
Balkhan is relatively independent of the cults' influence. Its society is always in flux, alliances easily broken and enemies easily reconciled. Balkhan is, in essence, unbreakable; its clans resisted the advance of the Africans and slaughtered their advance, then turned on all of the cults that failed to help them. One cult does remain, as minor as they may be; the Carpathians were home to Project Tannhauser, the Recombination Group's end-of-the-world bunker, and the Palers remain its stewards. 

The Voivodes define Balkhan, local warlords who rule their respective cities without the cults' interference. Voivodate Beograd is unsteady and hostile land, while Voivodate Sofia is a paradise protected from the Eshaton yet undermined from within by a nameless stranger. Bucharest is a Jehammedan stronghold against African conquest, weakened and desperate for aid from the Voivodes. Turkey is a Psychovore hot zone, but the Turks still survive in sealed enclaves that poison the plants and draw them away.

===Hybrispania===
Hybrispania was the first point of contact between post-Eshaton Europe and Africa. Spain sought to rebuild its nation, but could do no such thing without power; they sought out African oil instead, reconstructing the passage across Gibraltar into a land bridge and raiding the fields of Africa. African resistance against Spanish mercenaries sparked the war between Hybrispania and Africa, two hundred years long. Hybrispania is an entire culture of guerrillas now, constantly moving and sacrificing for the cause. Castile perseveres under the banner of la Campeadora, the figurehead of Hybrispanian resistance. Jehammedans coexist with the Guerreros and fight their war with them. More worryingly, the Guerreros deal with Pregnoctics, Psychonauts with divinatory powers in the forests. Far to the south, Gibraltar and Seville are African-dominated cities with allegedly free Hybrispanians subdued under consuls. Hybrispania is also a home to Discordance, and phenomena even worse. Between Madrid and Al-Andalus is an anomaly in time that even the Pregnoctics refuse to enter, allegedly dating back to the Bygone.

===Purgare===
Former Italy. Clans are organized around fortified households and hilltop villages, led by a Patriarch. Apennines are the main cultural barrier. West side of mountains are populated by Burn-addicted squatters selling off the Bygone treasures to the Africans. East side is is a stronghold of the Neognostic Anabaptists, farming the land & staring off the Jehammedans to the East across the Adriatic Valley. 

Great families include the Lombardi in Bergamo, the Catalanos of Veneto, the Sforza of Perugia, the Modicas of Macerata, the Capodieca of L'Aquila, the de Paulos of Campobasso, and the Romanos of (what's left of) Roma. 

Sicily is now known as Bedain, and is an African stronghold, a great shipyard and launch point for expeditions into blighted Europe. Corsica and Sardinia are now known as Corpse, and is a pirate haven inaccessible to outsiders. The Reaper's blow lies submerged offshore. 

Major Cults include the Anabaptists, Apocalyptics, Clanners, Hellvetics, Scrappers, & Spitalians. The Earth Chakra, East of Mt. Vesuvius, produced the deadly Psychokinetics, masters of various bloodsucking insects, razor-thin force fields, and physical distortion of space.

===Africa===
Got lucky in the Eschaton and subsequent climate shifts - planetary cooling has greened the Sahara, supporting many tribal villages and major cities along the Mediterranean coast. Pretty much all the different tribes and ethnic groups have agglomerated into a single culture, aided by psychic phenomena giving everyone a single language. Instead of a direct hit, the asteroid swarm gave Africa a grazing blow that dropped plant spores over Central Africa, planting the seeds of the Psychovore jungle, which is now aggressively spreading North. 

African culture is based around pride, trade, and vengeance against Europe, and its native cults lead the way. The Neolibyans finance Africa, the Scourgers defend its interests, and the Anubians care for the souls and bodies of its people. Tripol is arguably the greatest city left in the world, with its massive Bank of Commerce governing Neolibyan activities throughout the known world. The underbelly of African society is built on slaving - debt slavery and (more commonly) white slaves taken from the ruin of Europe. Most Africans see this as a fit punishment and revenge against the past plundering of their land.