PCBaller World/Greater Illinois

Pre-Collapse USA (mid 2020s)
With the election of Kamala Harris after the Joe Biden presidency, the USA entered a period of terminal, final decline. Three '08-style economic catastrophes were wrought forth by her overregulation and complete mismanagement of the economy combined with extreme factionalism in the legislature and judiciary shooting down any attempt to save it. Eventually, the USA essentially became a second-world nation, with all incentive for progress completely gone, and Russia and China took advantage of that in the USA's final years. Eventually, states began to separate from Kamala's atrocious governance, and with the secession of the West Coast, the USA was doomed. Plenty of rural states fell victim to ideological radicality with time, while others devolved into anarchy without any central authority to lead them. Some others, however, collected around the once-grand cities and held out. But others, however, saw this coming from miles away, and planned accordingly.

The American Catharsis (late 2020s)
The American corporate landscape and other elites didn't just take this sitting down. They collected all of their power and influence in the most industrially-fertile territory in the nation; the Tri-State Area of Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois. A large and influential remnant of the US government held out there since the beginning of the collapse, but eventually, was completely couped by this new conglomerate near the end of the 2020s. The elites knew that the American system was inherently flawed; they just watched their empires collapse because of it, after all. With the knowledge that they were surrounded on all sides by hostile forces, the new government insitituted an ultra-technocratic managerial state, which was refined over the years to what it is today.

Humble Beginnings (late 2020s-mid 2030s)
Greater Illinois, if it were like any other American splinter state, should have collapsed a long time ago. While both Russia and China were collapsing, Greater Illinois was beginning to rebuild against all odds, importing materials from Quebec and taking whatever we needed from the land. Eventually, the prairie was turned into an industrial colossus, waiting to be activated, while the companies rebuilt their empires over many, many years. However, up until the mid 2030s, the situation was extremely dire. People were expected to work 12 hour days, and the totalitarian regime present in the beginning was very brutal. Eventually, as the industrial core was rebuilt, liberalization happened (and is still happening even to this day), but anyone over XX years of age can tell you just how bad things used to be. Despite everything, there was something inside of the heart of every Greater Illinosian that kept them going; hate. The hope for reclamation was a distant dream, and putting Russia in a casket once and for all was yet further away, but the mere possibility kept us going. People have always said that pre-collapse Americans used to be haughty and proud of their nation, no matter what its flaws were. Now, we actually have something to be proud of, and the whole world will shake because of it.

Reclaiming What Is Ours (mid 2030s-late 2030s)
One thing that Greater Illinois did right was technology. Despite being situated in a total hellhole, market forces and the pursuit of quality led to large-scale scientific advances even in the dark ages. The tables truly began to turn with the advent of the first-generation Standard Robotic Units. Gone were the days of useless menial labor occupying everyone's time. Gone were the 12-hour work days. This breakthrough, combined with the creation of the legendary Laser Matrix and other forms of mass automation, sparked a period of growth that continues even now in 20XX, and shows no signs of stopping. Greater Illinois went from having a 0.68 on the HDI to attaining such a transcendent HDI that it broke the scale. The industrial heartland was finally completed. New technology flows from the state like a riptide. And, above all, our dreams became realistically attainable. New enemies have arisen, and old ones persist, still. And eventually, the dream of American Reuinification became attainable with the merger between the LFA and the Montanan State, as well as the reclamation of New England. We're now in an even better position than the pre-collapse USA, ironically, and it seems that we're unstoppable. Poland will fall. Sequoyah will fall. Imperium will fall. America WILL see reunification, and sanity will be returned to Europe. We can't lose! ...Right? Obstacles still remain to the long-term survival of America. The Indonesian state is quite concerning, and it may seek to threaten our long-term integrity. We may be secure, but the same cannot be said for some of our allies. And although no direct threats to American reunification remain due to the detente with the PSNR, Indonesia has been getting more and more handsy and radical with each passing day. We need to be careful.

A New Era of Peace (late 2030s-present)
With the historical detente between the PSNR and us, only three threats remain to the order, and none of them are worth anything. The Lovecraftians lose more and more ground as our technology shapes the planet and human experience in ways never dream possible. The Neo-Soviets are losing the economics game. And Indonesia is a shambling corpse trying to infect as much as possible before inevitably collapsing. Situation Report: we're pretty much set. However, these three states also menace both old and new allies, and the Dacian horde needs to be put down like the rabid dogs they are, but other than that, there's just no use in fighting anymore. Greater Illinois isn't isolationist by any means (our companies are literally everywhere), but we're not as hawkish as we once were. Onwards!

One of Greater Illinois' biggest strengths is absolute social parity and the absolute equality between the citizens. The early days of Greater Illinois were quite hard on both the elite and the commoner, and from that fire, prejudice of all kinds simply disappeared. LGBT rights aren't an issue because LGBT rights aren't talked about. There are bigger things to worry about. The constructs that have facilitated awful race relations for so long were dismantled by the new government. Social issues do not exist in Illinois because, my friend, there are far, FAR bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Around 95% of Greater Illinosian civilians have live in either suburbs or the cities themselves. The rural sector has been almost entirely phased out by this point due to immense technological advancements in agriculture and resource acquisition, This has allowed corporations to consume most of the prairie, although plenty of strategically-placed natural parks exist to maintain local biodiversity. But, for all intents and purposes, the "rural" American lifestyle is dead and gone in Greater Illinois. Suburbs are now the primary building block of the American Corpus, the combined city infrastructure of Greater Illinois. It is here where the industry is the most concentrated, and entire suburbs often revolve around a few megacorps, although entire "company towns" belonging to a single corp are forbidden by law. Despite the corporate paternalism, the suburbs have fundamentally remained unchanged from their pre-collapse iterations, save for the massively increased prescense of industrial facilities, the addition of reliable public transportation, and the implementation of YIMBYist (Yes, In My Back Yard) policies. Despite being "lower-class" dwelling places, the suburbs are still very fun places to live in, with plenty of services, amenities and activities. Impressive as the new suburbs are, going from self-contained bubbles to a part of a greater network, they're nothing compared to what the cities have become over XX years of renovation and innovation. An Illinosian "city" is defined as a town or municipality with a population of over 500,000 people, which has lead to the creation of some "newer" cities on pre-existing suburbs, but when people think of a "city," they think of the massive citadels that dot the Greater Illinosian landscape. Many people travel to the cities for work purposes via Maglev train, but the hyper-modern, artisanal and elegant functions and design of the city make them the dwelling places of the Illinosian elite, although recent changes have allowed the average Joe to retire in the cities after a fulfilling work life. The "bad neighborhoods" of Chicago, Gary, Detroit and other cities like them have been removed gradually through social reforms (including limited drug legalization) and the removal of drug kingpins, as well as the nationalization of the prison system indirectly. Functionally, Illinosian cities have been overhauled quite severely. The "block" system that most of the cities were fundamentally built upon pre-collapse has been reformed to host monorail tram systems that make transportation even easier in the cities. Cars themselves have also been banned in the cities, as they cause too many logistical problems. The streets are now used to host vendors and for civilians to walk on. However, occasionally, a semi truck will pass through on dedicated maintenance roads, but most goods are delivered and ferried around on supply trains or trams. The skyscrapers have also been gradually reformed, adopting a far more geometrical aesthetic, eventually resembling monoliths with a black, gold, red and silver color scheme. Most of the cities within Greater Illinosian territory are unrecognizeable already, but the city that has undergone the biggest change is the capital city of Chicago. Fielding the latest technologies on the planet, the city has often been described by foreigners as the "8th wonder of the world" and "a utopia in all but name." Think of Dubai but on steroids and actually good. The Sears Tower serves as the primary government building and seat of both Chicago and Greater Illinois as a whole, and is where the offices of the President, Vice President and other high-ranking government offices are located. It is estimated that the expenses thrown on the Illinosian city project in general over the many XX years it's been active have eclipsed the overall economic generation of many entire states.

One of the downsides to the Greater Illinosian hyper-growth is that it occupied the entire citizenry, leaving almost nothing new to grow. So, in a weird twist, ultranationalism aside, Greater Illinosian "culture" is almost a direct replication of pre-collapse American behavior. However, on the advice of Lebanon's Prime Minister Whiztale al-Pissfail, Greater Illinois has begun to implement cultural reforms that mimic the generalized pre-colonial and pre-Manifest Destiny beliefs of the various native tribes that inhabit[ed] America, which is mainly a tendency towards environmentalism and the kickstarting of a "gift giving" culture like the one seen in pre-collapse Japan, for a more modern example. Greater Illinosians have also become much more polite and educated than your baseline American as a result of renewed national brotherhood and the nationalization and technocratization of schooling/Academia, but other than that, it's more or less the same.

Greater Illinois has spent a truly exorbitant amount of money, resources and time over the past few years towards extreme technological growth in every aspect. To most nations, Illinosians are known for posessing some of the most advanced technology on the planet, with Greater Illinosians themselves having no rivals in terms of how developed they are in that regard. It would be impossible to list exactly how much new technology has been developed by the regime, since literally thousands of new improvements and inventions are rolled out and/or theorized every day. Despite being extremely stingy with their physical technology, Greater Illinois has revolutionized many academic fields, from Physics to Sociology, in very impactful ways. Perhaps the biggest thing Greater Illinois is known for in general, unspeakable atrocities and trigger-happy, ultra-absolutist foreign policy aside, is bringing the world towards net zero carbon emissions. After Greater Illinois was finished with its initial three year plan for mass development, it immediately sent schematics for practical ecotech to almost every nation on Earth with the capability to produce them. Power generation has advanced, and some nations have used the technology for iffy purposes, but, as President BERNHE put it, "Back then, our main goal with all of that distribution was to solve a serious existential crisis. We may be at a disadvantage today because of that, but it was worth everything that has resulted from it since then." Although some states are more advanced in particular fields (with the biggest example being the LFA's former monopoly on nanotechnology), Greater Illinois still holds dominion over most of them. The only state that can even hold a candle to Illinosian technological prowess are the Quebecois up north. However, access to all of this wondrous technology has caused Illinois to become drunk with power over time. Alliances against them are forming, and soon, no amount of technology or magic hat tricks may be able to save them. For this reason, Illinois has started to genuinely cooperate with their allies a lot more, have joined a few alliances (and even made one of their own) and is becoming less militaristic, with them pulling out of the Baltic Sea due to the request of the European Commonwealth. However, this is not to say that Greater Illinois does not throw its weight around. The state itself is universally feared within the American territories, with even the stalwarts in the Northwestern Imperium and the Liberal Federation of America complying with Illinosian activities. However, they have no time for petty Fascists or Liberals unless there's a use for them. No. They're currently occupied with wiping out the greatest ideological virus that humanity has ever beheld. They intend on fully purging Communism AS A CONCEPT from North America, and there's really little that can be done to stop them. And next up, the world. That will definitely be interesting. Ever since the merger with the LFA and the Montanan Territories, technological progress has sped up even further, with the influx of LFA/Montanan technology, scientists, and information, as well as the export of Greater Illinosian assets to our new countrymen. The cohesive union now accelerates far faster than any other state in existence, despite the dominance of the military and the corporations in Illinois. The closest states to us technologically are light years behind us and will probably forever remain so. Greater Illinois is in a VERY good position in that regard, which is good for them, because their new technologies have amplified their capacities beyond anything the former United States possessed, despite the reduced size of the union. In even better news, it seems that the new Byzantium is beginning to ascend technologically as well, making them what is essentially the dominant power in Europe. Many of their technological advancement was the result of them improving their research base and technology after recieving Greater Illinosian technology. Although they're still behind Greater Illinois for the time being, we're confident that our Byzantine allies will become the technological authority in Europe, and we will support them every step of the way. In other news, Greater Illinois has been the only state to field Liquid Thorium Salt reactors in their infrastructure, which are far easier to build and supply than fusion reactors, although recently, they've begun to export the components to other allied countries. They're essentially a far safer version of a nuclear reactor, although the Illinosian nuclear program is still extremely strong. Fossil fuels have been completely cut out from the power sector, given the incentives offered to energy titans like Exxon Mobile to invest and deploy greener technologies. In other news, the field of AI has been mastered within Greater Illinois, with AIs helping govern things like resource allocation with business, asset management, logistics and maitenance. This has essentially eradicated 99% of all "blue-collar" jobs, allowing the population to enter managerial/artistic/specialized labor/scientific fields. This allows Greater Illinois to have a far, FAR bigger economic output than those states that still rely on human labor. Greater Illinois has also mastered the technology of Quantum Computing to such a point that they're employed on a commercial level and that has bolstered their AI capability to new heights. Standard Robotic Units, the backbone of the Greater Illinosian Military, are capable of acting just like regular humans except without any of the combat drawbacks. The research base has also been experimenting with genetic editing in order to grant the next few generations of Americans a serious leg up compared to the rest of the world. They've also cracked the code to synthesizing food of all kinds, a technology which they begrudgingly share with the free market, which has allowed Greater Illinois to shut down its factory farms and produce meat-based produce THAT way. Despite Illinois being far from post-scarcity, it's technologies like these that make sure that no Illinosian goes hungry UNLESS HE DOESN'T WORK >:( With the recent extreme advancements in quantum computing, both Byzantium and Greater Illinois have accelerated to the point where the two states are essentially equal in capacity. Both states house an Ultracomputer, and both churn out extremely advanced technology daily. Byzantium and Greater Illinois are literal proof that progress is exponential. Whereas Illinois has focused more on industrial and economic technology, Byzantium, given its status of being surrounded by hostile anarchists, wants to get bigger militarily. We can understand that sentiment, although there's really no more point in trying to be the "strongest" nation anymore since nothing can really hurt us. Now, the name of the game is to produce even more advanced technology and expand human influence beyond our cradle of Earth.

Greater Illinois has often been described as "a market with a state" due to the corporate paternalism and ultra-capitalistic endeavors that happen regularly there. Greater Illinois was formed when many of the American megacorporations from the old order teamed up with the academic base and militarists, after all. As such, the state is inseparably connected to the concept of a free market. Despite massive megacorporations having extreme precedence in government policy, local small businesses, the ones that are able to thrive and even expand, are allowed to exist and enter/exit the markets whenever they want. The banks are nationalized for the sake of retaining a stable currency, but they function primarily like the ones from the old order, and many familiar names such as Morgan-Chase and Rothschild still dot the banking leadership of Greater Illinois. For what is the point of continuing to serve the economy if you aren't entitled to the fruits of your labor? Perhaps the most powerful corporation in Greater Illinois (and perhaps the world) is the reformed remnants of the BlackRock corporation. The previous CEO and founder of BlackRock, Lawrence Fink, has actually ascended to Economic Minister of Greater Illinois. Plenty of assets from the previous order are still retained within BlackRock, and the fortunes of many enemy nations now ironically sit within the grasp of Greater Illinois. In that sense, the very existence of BlackRock itself is a direct threat to the economies of many countries, and it takes absolute loyalty, one way or another, for BlackRock to release you. BlackRock, now married to the ultranationalistic ideology of Greater Illinois, now serves as the key device for global economic imperialism by them. Nevertheless, hundreds of megacorporations, united under ideology and with three of the most resource-rich states on the planet under their control, now treat Greater Illinois as a playground. Over the years, mergers and the like have caused some megacorps to fail and others to merge with another, until essentially, the markets equalized to form pseudo-monopolies, with a clique of megacorps lording over each individual industry. The Industrial Landscape of Greater Illinois is utterly gargantuan. As a result of breakthroughs in hydroponics and factory farming technology, many millions of acres of farmland in Wisconsin, Indiana and Illinois itself have been bulldozed, paved over and built upon. Warehouses, farm buildings, factories, factory farms, logistical depots, stores of every kind, living units, and various other buildings now dot the landscape, representing the collaboration and competition between the various megacorporations that exist throughout the land. Every building, from the skyscrapers full of offices to the lowly factory farms providing food to the citizens, is 100% green, although it is safe to say that the "rural" vibe of the prairie states have been permanently reformed to become something far more fitting for our needs and our modern era. The building of this mass complex was a delicate process, and was only truly completed upon the merger with the LFA, which allowed us to increase our importation of raw resources tenfold. This smattering of industry, representative of the might of our new America, is the primary reason why Greater Illinois has such a tremendous GDP; transcending even the USA pre-collapse. Despite this, betwixt corporate statism and industrial megalopoli, due to ideological and economic reasons, the Quality of Life for the average Joe has never been better. Nationalistic sentiment and gradual incentive programs from the Government have caused most student debt to be forgiven, and the colleges eventually sold themselves to the state, therefore ensuring quality education for all those who were capable of surviving in the sacred institutions. Mass Automation, implemented almost immediately after the foundation of Greater Illinois, gave the professional, specialized worker far more bargaining power on who to do business with and what the terms of employment were. Sure, there are hundreds of billionaires and a few people below the poverty line, but it isn't fucking Cyberpunk by any means. It's easy to succeed in Greater Illinois. Both the state and your local megacorp WANT you to succeed in Greater Illinois, for that means one more executive, one more scientist or one more engineer in the ranks. They will HELP you succeed in Greater Illinois. The only factor that inhibits you by this point is essentially yourself. Did you know that the average salary in Greater Illinois is around $80,000/yr, increasing yearly? Greater Illinois possesses a Fiat Currency for the time being, however, they have also created a state-sponsored Cryptocurrency (with a similar rate to USD) to serve as a baseline for online transactions. However, models such as Thermoeconomics have been discussed before, but the Industrial Clique is reluctant to change the entire monetary system entirely for now.

In recent news, newfound access to various ports via connections with the Bloc of Free Trade, the First Anti-Communist Internationale, and the new port district at the end of the Mississippi River has allowed Greater Illinois to access the global economy once again. Since Greater Illinois does not need pre-manufactured parts and advanced systems, given their already-extreme production capacities, they've purchased massive amounts of raw or simple materials from various states and sent them back to the homeland for processing. Since then, the Industrialists have been having a field day, and the Mass Production Protocol has been enabled again. Greater Illinois mainly produces advanced/rare components like computer parts, synthetic foodstuffs, functional robots (including military models), and components for advanced power generation for export. However, their capabilities are so extreme that they can produce anything. The full industrial power of Greater Illinois has finally been realized, and the markets will bloom because of it.

One side-effect of this mass import of material (which is necessary, even with the neo-mercantilist system) is the possibility of ditching Fiat currency, reverting entirely to crypto and steel coins. However, given the massive scale of the Greater Illinosian economy, this would be expected to take a LONG time to implement, if it even gets anywhere in the legislature.

Now that the merger has been completed, Greater Illinosian companies finally have unfettered access to all sorts of PORTS!!! Despite Greater Illinois bypassing its landlocked status all that time ago, it was mainly through the Mississippi River, foreign ports, and cargo planes. Now, the union finally has ports it can call its own, and the ships are leaving the harbors now. Also, imports will probably decrease in certain areas once the rest of the union is brought up to code. However, nowadays, although the civilian markets are still doing better than ever, much of the industry has been aligned with the military to make an army that can shatter the Earth (especially Poland. Fuck those guys). The main exports of Greater Illinois are advanced components, weapons systems, genetically-engineered foodstuffs, power generation equipment (and power itself), computational technology, pharmaceuticals, and advanced alloys. Greater Illinois' dominance in all of these fields, as well as the recent lessening of raw material imports due to asteroid mining, have made their dealings extremely lucrative. Plenty of the gains from trade, trillions upon trilions of dollars, are funnelled into the machine of progress, but enough is left over to ensure an extremely high QoL for its citizens. The general abolition of most manual and entry-level positions and the growth of new professional jobs have also mostly sealed the massive wealth gap that existed before the American collapse naturally (despite there being no shortage of magnates, tycoons and oligarchs), with most Greater Illinosians retiring as millionaires.

The Executive Branch

 * Dr. Bernard "BERNHE0504" Henderson (President)
 * Relatively young to be holding the office of president, Bernard "BERNHE" Henderson is the fourth president of Greater Illinois. Hailing from the suburbs of Chicago, he grew up in a relatively well-off family and was able to gain a doctorate in Economics for his work in Automotive Capitalism. In fact, some of his theories were applied towards the final push, automating the economy entirely afterwards. He later served as the Associate Minister of Economics for a little while before making a successful run for the presidency. During his presidency, he's taken a focus on liberalizing Greater Illinois somewhat, reaching out to aligned European and Asian state, tightening the noose on the Warsaw Pact, and expanding the economy across the globe. His presidency also included a historic detente with the PSNR.
 * Braun "Tiberius" Spencer (Vice President)
 * A previous high ranking officer in the CIA, Mr. Spencer was chosen by President BERNHE as his Vice President in order to make more informed decisions about foreign policy. Known for his extremely hawkish takes regarding the PSNR and Europe in general, Mr. Spencer was responsible for influencing many of the foreign policy choices undertaken by Greater Illinois, including orchestrating the annexation of the BosWash megalopolis. Now, he's calmed down somewhat after the PSNR and Greater Illinois ceased hostility, but he's still very wary of Europe in general.
 * Dr. Cara Oliver (Secretary of State)
 * TBA
 * Lawrence Fink (Minister of the Economy)
 * Among the oldest members of the Illinosian cabinet, Lawrence Fink is the man behind the BlackRock corporation, the largest asset management firm on the planet. When the world collapsed, BlackRock tenaciously held onto its assets; providing security and confirmation at home, as well as an economic nightmare for BlackRock's opponents abroad. Since then, BlackRock has strangled, stabbed and hacked its way into being one of the largest firms on the planet, only being beaten by a few other Illinosian corporations. Larry Fink, the CEO of the firm, was the man behind all of it, and the Illinosian government recognized it. Now, one of the most feared and brutal executives on the planet, nicknamed the "Executive of Famine," now sits at the head of one of the most powerful economies on Earth.
 * Dr. Nathaniel Schmidt (Minister of the Environment)
 * Dr. Schmidt has dedicated his life to the environment and making the world that we live in at least a little bit better than when he arrived. The man behind the Green Push and the Father of Fusion, Dr. Schmidt is more or less singlehandedly responsible for reversing the decades of climate damage wrought by unfettered consumption of fossil fuels and plastic. For his achievement, he now chairs the EPA, NHS and the USDA.
 * Wolfgang Eberhardt (Minister of the Media)
 * The charismatic host of the GINN, Mr. Eberhardt has been in at the newsdesk for over XX years, beginning his career a few years prior to the collapse.
 * Gen. Charles Madoff (Commander In Chief of the Illinosian Armed Forces)
 * TBA
 * Dr. [REDACTED] (Minister of R&D and extreme LARP )
 * Very little is known about the man who has driven the Illinosian technological leap from its inception, but it is implied that the state purposefully conceals details about their identity and specific details. All the information that is available is that they have been in this position since the very founding of Greater Illinois itself.

The Legislature and Courts

 * Dr. Vladimir Bulgakov (Speaker of the House)
 * Lucas Marinetti (President Pro Tempore of the Senate)
 * The Hon. Amy Barrett (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court)

Others

 * Dr. Mikolaj Kaminski (CIA Director)
 * When people think of the "most feared person" in Greater Illinois, usually, they think of President BERNHE or some other high-ranking official. However, the true monster in the cabinet is Dr. Mikolaj Kaminski, the current director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Dr. Kaminski goes by many names; the Butcher of Moscow, the Scourge of Belarus, Evil Incarnate, etc... The list goes on and on. He was born in Poland when it was sane, and he emigrated to the USA a little while before The Collapse when he was younger, eventually gaining full Illinosian citizenship, despite being foreign-born. The reason for the bestowment of such an honor is because Dr. Kaminski is irreplaceable. The man himself is a stone-cold psychopath, being able to completely disregard the suffering that his actions may cause towards others. And that attribute is what makes Dr. Kaminski perfect for the CIA. Almost every act of clandestine aggression that Illinois has embarked upon in the past XX years was dreamt up and authorized by him. He was responsible for the destruction of Moscow, the atrocities in Belarus, and many other things that, uhm, aren't public knowledge. For that reason, Dr. Kaminski is one of the most feared if not THE most feared person in the world. Almost every member of the Warsaw Pact has a multi-million dollar bounty on his head, so he doesn't make public appearences. Nevertheless, in his spare time, he has created the Solution party, which serves mainly as a vessel to put his extreme Russophobia into practice.
 * Cl. Brian Anderson (Chief of Police)
 * Colonel Anderson is your stereotypical "badass." XX years in the Illinosian Marines gifted him with a lifetime's worth of first-hand battle experience, until the Marines were supplanted with SRUs. However, the Colonel found another purpose in leading the combined police forces of Greater Illinois. Essentially a second military, the police and their variants are responsible for maintaining order both within Greater Illinois and outside of it. Colonel Anderson relishes his job, and he is very, very good at it.
 * Prof. Calvin Heimark (Chief of Propaganda)
 * Considered to be the one behind many of the twisted displays found on Illinosian holidays, as well as being the guy who makes ads that are actually interesting, Prof. Heimark has put in many decades as a professor of rhetoric at the University of Illinois, and the collapse hasn't slowed him down. Now, he is the director of state propaganda, and uses concepts from many different fields to make his propaganda pop. He also cooperates with Kaminski to make sure that each 4th of July is very memorable.
 * Dr. Robert Snow (Chief Diplomat)
 * Dr. Snow is used to being yelled at. That's fine, because he used to be a therapist in his "conventional" life. Nevertheless, the man was found to be extremely talented at playing the delicate game of diplomacy, and, after a few year's worth of training, he ascended to become a diplomat. Now, he is the chief diplomat, and he gets yelled at still; IN POLISH! Serving primarily as the ambassador for both the PSNR and the EPR, Dr. Snow is expected to handle both sides of the same conflict. He's sent in every once in awhile to the PSNR as a token, but visits to the EPR are far more common (and luckily so, for him).
 * Dr. Alexandria Cortez (Chief Arbiter)
 * Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. AOC herself. She used to be a big name in American leftist circles, mainly among Social Democrats, but all that collapsed along with America itself. She's never lost her passion for fighting for the underserved and under-represented, and she expected the worst with the dawn of the Illinosian economic miracle. However, she was shocked to find that the corporations and the workers found a way to coexist in mutually beneficial ways. Nonetheless, she later studied at the University of Illinois, gained a doctorate in Communications, and now serves as the Chief Arbiter of Greater Illinois; the populace's most powerful representative in the Illinosian government.
 * Fr. James Fulbright (Minister of Spiritual Affairs)
 * Father Fulbright is a simple man. Praise God, run the Diocese, and follow Christ. Simple as. This simplicity is what Greater Illinois needed to balance the needs of all major religious institutions in the country, not just Christian ones. Luckily, Father Fulbright is a tolerant man. That's good!

Greater Illinois is a very interventionist state that is surrounded on all sides by hostile powers. As such, they have spent exorbitant amounts of resources on making a rather small, yet extremely potent and advanced army. The amount of actual humans in the Illinoisian military is astonishingly low, with less than 100,000 active-duty soldiers. A few national guardsmen and plenty of reserves are kept on standby, should the SRUs fail, but they're a minority, eclipsed by the many millions of Standard Robotic Units (SRUs) fielded by Greater Illinois. These robots have been the core of the Illinosian military and public life since a few years after the state's inception, and are invaluable assets in maintaining Illinosian military dominance in North America. The robots themselves are far taller and much more effective soldiers than humans could ever hope to be, with the average SRU being able to go toe-to-toe with an Annihilator Brigadier. The nature of an SRU allows them to be equipped with much heavier weapons systems than humans could normally operate, which has proven to be extremely deadly against adversaries of Greater Illinois. It is reported that during pre-Treaty interference in the Eastern Crisis, Illinoisian SRUs dispatched what were alledgedly Norwegian "special forces" effortlessly in a famed operation lauded by the intelligence community. SRUs come in many different variants, with the 6th through 8th generations being fielded in the military (although the 6th generation is being phased out). Others are built for civil/industrial work and were instrumental in the near-full automation of the Illinosian economy and its extreme growth. The latest generation is built from a heavily upgraded alloy, and comes with even more impressive statistics, processing and battle acumen. Greater Illinois has also fully roboticized its armor division, with various ADMECH units serving that purpose. ADMECH units are essentially intelligent tanks, usually with far heavier armor and weapons systems than their "manned" counterparts, given the additional available space within and outside of the vehicle. The most feared of these are the superheavy tanks, the Behemoths, which boast 1 meter thick armor, a massive rail cannon, ventral laser turrets, an AA battery, as well as a very hard-to-destroy electromagnetic force field. The air force is also quite potent, but also very simple, being focused mainly on American pre-collapse designs. Both the F-, A- and B- platforms are retained for their fighters, and the newest F-49s are capable of annihilating other fighters before they even get into range, with the A-12 "Lightning" being a far more practical version of the legendary A-10 Thunderbolt. LFA and Byzantine designs have also been incorporated into the bombing sector of the Illinosian air force, although Illinois relies on its own B-3 Phantasm to fill the crucial role for strategic stealth interdiction. However, most of the Illinoisian airforce consists of a vast array of highly-modular drones, ranging from anti-vehicle hellspawn in the form of the DR-1 Midge, to the heavy weapon delivery system of the DR-3 Grasshopper, to the single-target powerhouse that is the DR-2 Locust. Drones outnumber the manned air force by a factor of three, although most later fighter jets are capable of operating autonomously as well, and are usually what is sent in during Illinoisian operations. Byzantine suicide drones have also been purchased and modified to carry heavier payloads and to go faster, as well as replacing the sirens to say "LEROOOOOYYY JENKIIIINS!!!" instead of demonic wailing. The navy is also extremely potent, with Greater Illinois being the developer of the "Platform" variant of ship; one dedicated almost exclusively to heavy artillery and area denial in both land, air and sea. However, the military saw little point in differing much from models used pre-collapse, so not much has changed outside of the obvious...IMPROVEMENTS. In terms of nuclear weapons, Illinois retains the most sophisticated and advanced warheads in the world. Each one has a payload of roughly 75 Megatons, with the exceptions of the recently-declassified anti-asteroid Annihilator Bombs, which, with recent improvements towards the Teller-Ulam designs, now carry a yield of 60 Gigatons (which is enough to poison an entire continent and destroy an entire nation with one strike). Nevertheless, Illinois still retains many nuclear weapons, well over 31,000 combat-capable ones (including a few limited Annihilator Bombs, should the need ever arise) in its stock. Greater Illinois also boasts a concerning arsenal of non-nuclear WMDs, especially in the form of poison gas. The Azazel Compound, a highly-concentrated form of chlorine trifluoride, is a favorite of the CIA for terrorizing guerilla forces and depopulating hard-to-penetrate regions. Many other bioweapons and gases are within the Greater Illinoisian arsenal, but most haven't been used. Yet. Speaking of which, artillery! Greater Illinois has so much artillery at this point that the military has a separate division for it. Most artillery is 100% autonomous, only requiring targeting input from human commanders to function. Illinoisian artillery comes in many forms, from the omnipresent laser cutters to extremely long-range kinetic artillery to the massive Epsilon border cannons to the Laser Matrix itself. The Laser Matrix is the Illinosian anti-nuclear system, and it is, for all intents and purposes, completely impenetrable with the recent addition of secondary mass EM forcefields. Finally, you have the jewels of the Military. The super-heavy combat vehicles are a new concept, but one that has proven itself in pure deadliness already. Only Byzantium and Illinois carry super heavy combat vehicles, although Byzantium uses them more than we do. The Illinosian superheavy fleet consists of a hybrid of both Illinoisian and Byzantine designs, with devastating effects for all who stand in the way. The most recognizeable super-heavy vehicle is the XMH-7 Exterminator, a veritable flying fortress with the capability to launch its own air detachment, enough firepower to level a city, defenses that can guarantee immediate aerial dominance for any terrain it enters, and very powerful computational systems on board.

There are two official Illinoisian special forces. The first of these are the Annihilator Brigades, which is an elite unit of cyborg supersoldiers that serve as a unit to send in when sending SRUs isn't optimal. They're armed to the teeth, boast incredibly advanced power armor, carry modular forcefields and jump packs, wield man-portable laser cannons, and have better stats than any man. They're essentially the most elite human soldiers in existence. However, the true special forces of Illinois are the A.P.E.X (Acquisition, Protection, Extradition, eXtermination) units. Think of a regular SRT, but on crack. Standing at around 2.3m tall, each one of these units is a veritable walking tank in terms of both defenses and offense. Most importantly, they're the only units robust enough to carry personal jetpacks in a practical manner. So far, they haven't been deployed or seen outside of their brief stint in protecting the Polish delegation during the Kultokratic Visit to Chicago, but when they're brought online for real, the world will tremble.

Note that this list also includes "secret" weapons and very niche ones as well (as well as weapons purchased from Byzantium), so it's far bigger than the one that's on our news site. It's also our most modern rendition, so some values are bigger than others, and it's also an official list instead of an estimate.
 * Standard Robotic Units (SRUs) - ~34,100,000
 * 3,000,000 6th-Gen
 * 10,000,000 7th-Gen
 * 11,000,000 8th-Gen
 * ~100,000 A.P.E.X Units (Classified Illinosian elite forces implied to be directly linked to the Eagle-9 Ultracomputer with nasty weapons systems, invisibility modules, radio scramblers, jetpacks, and electromagnetic forcefields to boot, not even Byzantium has access to these).
 * 10,000,000 "Police" Variants (7th/8th-gen SRUs fitted with ballistic armor and designed for city combat, general policing as well as melee combat, while being marginally weaker than their military counterparts in terms of processing power and energy resistance).
 * Human Soldiers - ~21,000
 * ~3,000 Annihilator Brigadiers
 * ~18,000 National Guardsmen
 * ADMECH Units - ~600,000
 * ~300,000 AT-1 "Raider"s (autonomous APCs that are capable of handling essentially any terrain)
 * ~250,000 AT-2 "Marauder"s (autonomous tanks with 0.5m thick ultrasteel armor, ventral gamma lasers, AA systems, and a main railgun)
 * ~50,000 AT-3 "Behemoth"s (superheavy tanks with 1m thick ultrasteel armor, enough firepower to bend an entire regiment over and literal force fields, also, their weight makes them susceptible to soft terrain, and they must be shipped over in parts)
 * ~6,750 Fighter Jets
 * ~500 F-49 Fighters (normally this would be classified, so TREAT IT LIKE IT'S CLASSIFIED!)
 * ~4,250 F-42 Fighters
 * ~1,250 F-35 Fighters (as of the latest update package, they're starting to be retired).
 * ~750 A-12 "Lightning" Fighters
 * ~5,000 Bombers
 * ~2,800 HK-1 "Millenium" Bombers
 * ~200 B-3 "Phantasm" Bombers
 * ~2,000 B-112 "Alexios" Bombers (purchased from Byzantium, these were REALLY expensive)
 * ~34,000 Drones
 * ~20,000 DR-1 "Midge" Drones (anti-vehicle VTOL drones equipped with THUNDER systems and a wide variety of tools to latch on an destroy either aircraft or ground vehicles/equipment).
 * ~9,000 DR-2 "Locust" Drones (modified MQ-9 reapers that carry both missiles, laser cannons and gauss cannons).
 * ~3,000 DR-3 "Grasshopper" Drones (a new design, distinct from the MQ-9 and loosely based off of the Slayer and Basil drones of Byzantium that are built for carrying and delivering explosives whilst evading AA instead of dogfighting or other tactics).
 * ~2,000 MI-1 "Goblet" Drones (LLLLEEERRROOOOOOOYYYYYYY JENKIIIIIINS!!!")
 * ~2,000 Ships
 * ~1,000 "Chameleon" Fusion Submarines (state-of-the-art submarines armed with nuclear missiles, specialized aquatic gauss cannons and hellfire torpedoes)
 * ~300 "Gecko" Patrol Ships (while not impressively armed, these little boats more than make up for it by being extremely durable and tend to carry a nasty SRU detachment).
 * ~200 "Caiman" Destroyers
 * ~150 "Alligator" Carriers
 * ~100 "Crocodile" Platforms (platforms are a new kind of ship that are large like aircraft carriers, but devote that space to carrying massive artillery systems instead).
 * ~200 "Cobra" Corvettes (fast ships, armed with massive THUNDER systems, designed to incapacitate and commandeer enemy ships).
 * ~50 "Turtle" Amphibious Warfare Crafts (underwater tanks that propel underneath the water, activate their treads when it's shallow enough, and then deploys SRUs.
 * ~121,000 Nuclear Weapons
 * ~90,000 "Defender" NTBMs (Non-Tactical Ballistic Missiles. These missiles are stationed in space and their sole use is to use their massive payloads to annihilate any rogue asteroid or alien ship that comes our way. Cannot be launched at Earth, as they were specifically designed to be easily targeted by the Laser Matrices that are by this point all around the globe. Called "IPBMs" (Interplanetary Ballistic Missiles) by non-Illinosian entities.)
 * ~3,000 TRBMs (Tactical Range Ballistic Missiles)
 * ~2,000 SRBMs (Short Range Ballistic Missiles)
 * ~5,000 MRBMs (Medium Range Ballistic Missiles)
 * ~5,000 IRBMs (Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles)
 * ~15,000 ICBMs (Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles)
 * ~1,000 SHPDSs (Super-Heavy Payload Deliverance Systems. Carries the dreaded Annihilator bomb to wherever it may need to go. Currently, they're optimized for space travel as a last resort against asteroid interdiction, although they were originally created for a much darker purpose).
 * ~4,000 SHCVs (Super-Heavy Combat Vehicles)
 * ~1,000 Citadel-1 Domination Platforms
 * ~500 XMH-7 "Exterminator" Flying Fortresses
 * ~1,000 SRT-1 "Heron"s (Byzantine imports that have been Illinoisified. They're like the walkers from War of the Worlds except practical, somewhat)
 * ~400 SRT-2 "Spider"s (More Illinoisified Byzantium imports)
 * ~500 SRT-U "Kraken"s (You get the idea)
 * ~60 SRT-3 "Overseer"s
 * ~40 SRT-4 "Butcher"s (The Illinosian take on an "orthodox" SRT. Swaps one of the "death rays" of the SRT-3 in order to make the other two more powerful and to use those residual systems to support a slew of anti-vehicle, anti-materiel and anti-personnel weapons)
 * ~300,000 Artillery Batteries
 * ~100,000 Gamma Laser-Based Artillery
 * ~50,000 Organized Laser Matrix Guns
 * ~50,000 Gauss-Based Artillery
 * ~80,000 Rail-Based Artillery
 * ~20,000 Missile Systems
 * ~30 "Epsilon" Border Guns
 * ~2,000 Space Weapons
 * ~500 "Ares" Platforms (Kinetic bombardment satellites that drop massive tungsten rods on an angle to hit cities. So far, only Illinois and Byzantium are capable of defending against strikes like these).
 * ~1,500 SDPs (Space Denial Platforms. Use laser technology and THUNDER systems to deny space access to entire nations. Now are used mainly to clean up Low-Earth Orbit of debris.
 * ~10,000,000 "Miscellaneous" WMDs
 * ~6,000,000 "Azazel" Shells (Illinois' favorite gas, the Azazel Compound mimics the effects of an ultra-concentrated form of Chlorine Trifluoride. Essentially the ultimate gas, it kills very quickly and can seep through just about anything. Used to depopulate hard-to-penetrate and/or sparsely-populated territory, and has been used many times against guerrillas in both America and Europe. Illinois's solution to the Anarchist problem.)
 * ~3,000,000 "Tartarus" Shells (Uses a stable and concentrated form of Maitotoxin to function as a dirty bomb against basically every living thing it is used against).
 * ~900,000 "Plague" Shells (Built to transport and spread almost any disease loaded in it.)
 * ~50,000 "Obliterator" Rounds (Quark Fusion-based rounds designed for an average artillery cannon. Does the same amount of damage as around 3 old M.O.A.B bombs.)
 * ~50,000 "Starvation" Shells (Specifically built to contain and disseminate a nasty pathogen that kills 99% of all plants it touches within a week. Harmless to humans, but can use them as a vector and is extremely infectious. Specifically designed to be used on North Germany should the need arise.)

Despite the technologically advanced nature of the Greater Illinosian image, their government employs certain technologies that are far beyond what the civilian body and other states are allowed to know about. However, most of these are still very experimental, so they'll be split into two categories:

Greater Illinois fields the most advanced military technology in the world, with all other states being light years behind them. However, the Illinosian military is rivalled by both the Indonesians and the Byzantines, but both aren't considered to be threats, since Indonesian technology is notoriously shoddy due to rushed research initiatives and the complete lack of a market mechanism or any form of incentive. Illinois has since developed counters to essentially everything that the Indonesians have, including their not-so-secret ultra-gas. Greater Illinois has, however, warned allied states about Indonesia's deployment of such gases, as well as its growing nuclear arsenal, and has provided schematics for filtration/gas mask systems that are capable of surviving it. Byzantium, on the other hand, is a steadfast Illinosian ally who is trusted with Illinosian technology. Nevertheless, Greater Illinois has a veritable arsenal of doomsday weapons of its own in case things go awry.
 * Greater Illinois is known as the Father of Dirty Warfare for good reason; as they are the only state who has successfully used cobalt dirty bombs in combat. Before the formation of the Neo-Soviet Union, Greater Illinois, in an act of mass reprisal against the weakened Russian state, dropped a series of three cobalt bombs on Moscow in 20XX, killing thousands (an evacuation order was given before the bombs were dropped, preventing mass civilian death) and rendering the city uninhabitable, even today.
 * Greater Illinois also uses actual brainwashing neurotechnology in its dealings with foreign agents. Using a wide variety of chemicals and other underhanded means, Greater Illinosian agents can essentially rip any piece of information they want out of someone, seamlessly. Their re-conditioning technology, dubbed "The Chair," also allows them to "re-program" people like dissidents and anti-Illinosian operatives. Since the public announcement of such technologies, the international community has responded with outrage at the application of such intrusive and underhanded measures.
 * Recently, new weapons systems have been created by Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Technologies. Project Thunder, a project that seeked to weaponize the power of electricity for use in small arms, armor and other defensive capabilities, has been completed, and the 7th generation of the Standard Robotic Unit, the most advanced generation to date, is set to be equipped with compatibility for modular charged armor to render melee assaults against them mostly useless.
 * There is also Project Fusion, which was dedicated to harnessing Quark Fusion technology in order to design far more potent laser weapons based on Gamma Wavelengths. Small arms and artillery from the project have been created, and it is expected that these new "Gamma Guns" will completely supplant ordinary laser weapons, soon.
 * Perhaps the biggest piece of military technology is the active nuclear weapon stockpile that Greater Illinois possesses. Each nuke is fully modern, with a complicated system of EMP and flares within each rocket to override any nuclear defense system. So far, the Illinosian nuclear stockpile is utterly gargantuan, with the state posessing around 20,000 of them in total, mostly ICBMs and short-range tactical nuclear weapons. However, there are only three types of nuclear payload that the state has;
 * The "small" variant is usually applied to tactical SRBMs and produces a 750 kiloton explosion. Around half of all the nukes in the stockpile have this configuration.
 * The "medium" variant unleashes 35 megatons of TNT, around twice the yield of the Castle Bravo test.
 * Finally, the "large" variant releases around 150 megatons of TNT, around thrice that of the Tsar Bomba. These are, for all intents and purposes, the largest nukes that have ever been built. Not if you count the [REDACTED] bombs, though.
 * Ever since the merger with the LFA, Raytheon and LM have been experimenting with their coveted nanite technology. Every SRU and ADMECH from the 6th generation onward was fitted with self-repairing supersteel nanite armor, essentially making them unkillable via normal human. The costs, though...
 * Illinois, in their infinite wisdom, has taken the concept of AA even further and has produced systems that are capable of shooting individual bombs out of the sky.
 * Illinois is in possession of their own perpetual motion machines, and is working with Byzantium on creating ACTUAL forcefields.


 * Despite not necessarily being known for space exploration, Greater Illinois still has many, many assets in space.
 * As an alternative to nuclear weapons, there are plenty of satellites in orbit, launched from Illinois, that are capable of kinetic bombardment from orbit (using tungsten-based rods). Each rod would have the yield of a small tactical nuke. These satellites are currently all offline and resemble space debris in order to prevent their accidental discovery, but if they're ever activated, every city on the planet can be a potential target.
 * Of course, there is the God's Eye system, a network of retrofitted spy satellites in geocentric orbit that serve as a global security camera. As long as they have the initial location of a target, they can track anyone or anything on the planet and act accordingly.
 * Anti-Spaceship weapons have been brought online across Low-Earth Orbit, effectively barring enemy nations from space.
 * They've also been dabbling in gene editing, even more so now that the accelerationists are in power.
 * With the revelation of the LFA's highly-impractical space laser, anti-satellite weapons have begun to be be built. Since then, these weapons have taken out ~95% of the spy satellite fleet of the Warsaw Pact.
 * With the technocrats becoming more and more annoyed at Occupied Poland's antics, they've begun to manufacture nasty strains of anti-agriculture/foliage diseases. Given the nature of said diseases, they're kept hundreds of feet underground with multiple containment features in place. If unleashed, it could defoliate a large chunk of a country entirely, causing local ecological catastrophes and mass famine. However, these will serve as a fallback and last resort, as Greater Illinois does not want these diseases to spread over to allied nations.
 * There are new nanite systems within every Standard Robotic Unit that make them immune to EMP-based weaponry and allow for limited self-repair.
 * New experiments within the realms of quantum harnessing technology have allowed for the teleportation of small objects via. radio waves. However, live animals that were transported this way have all died, and biological material in general does not appear to travel well. Inorganic objects, however...
 * Greater Illinois is also starting to experiment with hypothetical Quark Fusion reactors, slated to be even more powerful than standard hydrogen fusion reactors.
 * Upgrades to the Laser Matrix have reduced the probability of successful nuclear attack even further. Greater Illinois is essentially invulnerable to nuclear attack at this point. Praise be to our magic forcefield!
 * An extremely complicated network of bunkers have been created somewhere deep in the wilderness of Wisconsin, which is where the Greater Illinosian, Montanan and LFA leadership will reside. Chicago is still the capital de-facto, but the decisions are made in this complex. Schematics have shown that this bunker is more akin to a functional underground city than anything else, capable of nigh-unlimited survivability in the event of an apocalyptic scenario.
 * The Department of Post-Reclamation Activities has been created to deal with hypothetical future mega-projects upon the reunification of America and the removal of its enemies.
 * Recent advances in practical neurotechnology have allowed for the application of permanent IQ increases (probably to be rolled out ASAP), memory wipes, 100% efficient interrogation, and "deprogramming," the science of de-radicalizing zealots and other "unbreakables." This'll be very useful on that weird sect of Poles that are completely indoctrinated to the whims of the Social Nationalist occupiers.


 * One massive proposal, only spoken of among the highest circles of both the military and the department of theoretical physics, is investigating the potential development of a nuclear weapon capable of unleashing the power of 10 GIGATONS of TNT, based on Edward Teller's theories and designs. These "annihilator bombs" would have the potential to erase the very notion of a functional anti-American Europe or Asia, but would also set extremely dire precedents, so even the Greater Illinosians table this idea for now.
 * FUCK THIS, WE'RE GONNA BUILD ONE OR TWO NOW THAT THE USSR IS BACK AND HAS 1/40th OF THE WORLD'S POPULATION.
 * The first Annihilator Bombs have been created. If we die, we're taking the world with us.
 * Greater Illinois has been toying with the idea of a fully-automated colony on the moon for some time now, with the express purpose of mining and shipping Helium-3 back to earth as fuel for fusion reactors. However, given the absolutely insane cost of such an endeavor, it is only found within notebooks in top-secret archives.
 * To solve the question of heavy metals, Greater Illinosian officials have designed many very practical ways to embark on asteroid mining. However, for the same reason presented in the moon base question (ridiculous cost), this project is just a goal for the distant future. Until now...
 * LIBERATION FROM THE CONSTRUCTS OF FLESH ARE IMMINENT. HAIL THE MACHINE.