Something to help make sense of the alternate world inhabited by Dakota and her friends. Not required for the stories, but useful for the imagination. No sex. That shows up in the first episode.
*****
The World of Dakota Grange
The World
It is some time after the year 2015 CE.
The United States (US) consists of 40 states and two territories. The land, which--in another reality--would have been the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Utah, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and northeast Nevada, is part of the Great Sioux Nation (GSN). The rest of what would have been Nevada is divided between California and Arizona.
After the Spanish-American War of 1898, the US took Puerto Rico, Cuba, and, by trickery, Jamaica, all of which are states. Alaska and Hawaii are territories; there are no plans for statehood.
The GSN was born in 1876 after the death of the Lakota god George Custer, whose defeat at Little Big Horn by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse united the Sioux tribes and their allies against the US, which then lost the Indian Wars. Custer is considered the inspiration for the GSN and is revered and worshiped. His golden hair is on display at the Council House in Mni Luzahan (Rapid City, SD) but only to citizens of the GSN. The Lakota Sioux dominate the GSN government and are openly hostile to the US, although the borders are peaceful. There is some trade and tourism but the Lakota treat all US citizens with contempt and even after getting a visa US citizens are usually harassed when traveling through the GSN.
Mexico is a chaotic shambles. It never really recovered from the Mexican-American War of 1848 and is the domain of warring factions and shifting allegiances. The border with the US is quiet because the US Army is more than willing to cross the border and severely kick the ass of any Mexican bandito or
jefe militar
who gets full of himself and takes a fight to the US bordertowns.
Canada is a former British colony, newly independent, and a thorn in the side of both the US and the GSN, which is about the only thing those two governments agree on. Canada is wary of the GSN and spends most of its efforts trying to destabilize the Lakota regime, leaving the US alone.
World Wars I and II never happened, defused by the Council through negotiation, subornation, and assassination. Franklin Roosevelt served nearly six terms as president of the US and, up until his death in office in early 1956 at the age of 74, was considered a champion swimmer and runner.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire teeters on the brink of collapse thanks to the meddling of Imperial Russia and the British Empire. The German Empire waits impatiently, plotting continental conquest. France dreams of past glories and makes wine and cheese, sending her sons and daughters to die in a seemingly endless series of conflicts in its colony of Indo-China. The Ottomans watch everything carefully.
Japan, once a burgeoning Asian power, now focuses inward after a disastrous invasion of China, which cost it nearly half its male population before wisdom prevailed and it withdrew to settle old internal feuds in search of the next shogun. China broods, healing the wounds of eight years of constant, brutal war. Its memory is long, its empire eternal and bent on cold, cruel revenge.
To be blunt, the world has a fragile peace and is positively aching for a revolution. For at least one hundred years an organization called the Brumaire Council--established at the end of the French Revolution--has successfully prevented a major war by manipulating people and governments. They don't mind if the pot simmers and pops every now and then, as long as it doesn't boil over. The Council is composed entirely of hermaphrodites (futanari), all of whom were educated at Huddlestone Academy. But what does the Council want? The answer isn't clear, even to the Council. Some want to breed many more of themselves and eventually take over everything. A world of nothing but true hermaphrodites and no pesky male foibles to ruin things (of course we know it won't work out--never does). Others want to breed selectively, maintaining the larger population (the ones who think they are normal) as unwitting serfs to a greater purpose which is to keep the true hermaphrodites as the ultimate post-human elite.
If everyone is futa, how can I be special?
It's this tension within the Council that keeps the lid on global events. They will eventually decide, but the decision can easily wait another hundred years. The Council is nothing if not patient. Are they immortal? Probably not. Long lived? Oh, yes.
Characters
Dakota Grange