Modern Geography
Africa and The Middle East: Lights of a Dark Continent
- Burkina Faso is a landlocked western African country, formerly French Upper Volta.
- The Islamic Republic of Iran is a western Asian state historically known as Persia. According to the Abrahamic religions, Iran was known as the Land of Nod before the Deluge; though rare, archaeological evidence suggests that it was the hub of an industrialized Cainite civilization until it was destroyed in the flood. {Noah ₂₀₁₄}
- The Kingdom of Lesotho is a landlocked enclave surrounded by South Africa, one of the few legitimate and recognized monarchies in modern Africa.
- The Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe is a small island nation in the Gulf of Guinea off the northwestern coast of Gabon. Famously, the notorious pirate Bartholomew "Black Bart" Roberts was killed off of Príncipe, officially by being struck in the neck by grapeshot fired from HMS Swallow, but eyewitness accounts of the time suggest that he was actually killed by another pirate, who hanged Roberts from his own mast and then carried off his body for unknown reasons. {Assassin's Creed ₂₀₀₇}
- The Republic of Arabia, formerly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (and still colloquially referred to as Saudi Arabia) is the largest country in the Near East and is notably where Islam originated. In the early 21st century, Saudi Arabia underwent a revolution which saw the abolition of its monarchy and the installation of its first President, Yasir Al-Fulani, who quickly became the most powerful man in the Middle East. {Call of Duty ₂₀₀₃} In 2011, a coup d'état was led against Al-Fulani by Khaled Al-Asad for the President's ties to the West and he was murdered on international television in Al Qunfudhah. During Al-Asad's brief presidency, lasting only a few days, the capital was moved to Khafji near the Kuwaiti border; when the United States military invaded to arrest Al-Asad, a nuclear device was detonated, destroying the capital and killing 30,000 American soldiers.
- The Republic of Tunisia is the northernmost country in Africa, and in ancient times was the center of the Carthaginian Empire. The island of Djerba off its southeastern shores is also known as the Land of the Lotus-eaters. {The Trojan Cycle}
- The Republic of South Africa is the 25th largest country in the world, and historically has been very controversial because of its white supremacist regimes and system of apartheid, but has become more free and stable since 1990. Uniquely, South Africa has three separate capitals: Archona {The Domination of the Draka ₁₉₉₁} for the executive branch of its government, Bloemfontein the judicial, and Cape Town the legislative. South Africa became globally important in 1982 when an alien ship arrived on Earth, positioning itself over Johannesburg, the country's largest city. {Alive in Joburg ₂₀₀₆, District 9 ₂₀₀₉} What appeared to be an invasion was actually a new refugee crisis: the extraterrestrials, the Poleepkwa, (colloquially "prawns") were placed into a government-run camp called "District 9" and kept under the last vestiges of the apartheid system even after it was officially abolished in the rest of the country.
The Americas: In the Rubble of Utopia
- Bermuda is a small island in the North Atlantic, far off the Eastern Seaboard of the United States and a British Overseas Territory. It forms the northernmost point of the infamous Bermuda Triangle. Historically, it has been visited by Ælfwine of England, who recorded its name as Tol Eressëa (Quenya "Lonely Island") after learning of it from the natives, {Tolkien's legendarium} and then by Prospero in the early 17th century. {The Tempest ₁₆₁₀}
- The Republic of Haiti occupies the western part of Hispaniola, and notably is the only country in the world founded from a successful slave revolt as well as being a major center of Vodun, colloquially known as voodoo.
- The United States of America is one of the largest and most powerful countries in the world, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific across the middle part of North America and also including the Hawaiian Islands and Alaska in its fifty states. There is an unusually high amount of supernatural, paranormal, extraterrestrial, and metahuman activity within the United States, which its government has extensively tried to study, contain, cover-up, and weaponize over the course of its history.
- Arkansas
- Fouke is a small city notable for being in the purported range of the Fouke Monster, a bigfoot-like creature which became the subject of the 1972 documentary The Legend of Boggy Creek. In fall 2007, three men were killed in the nearby forest, suggested by news reports to have been the victims of a bear attack, though locals insist that the real culprit was the Fouke Monster. {Lost Tapes ₂₀₀₈}
- California
- San Francisco is a major city, serving as the base of operations for the Justice League affiliate organization known as the Teen Titans, who built their headquarters on Angel Island and code named the surrounding area "Jump City." From at least 1986, it has been a major center of purported supernatural activity, particularly related to the criminal underworld based out of Chinatown. {Big Trouble in Little China ₁₉₈₆, Jackie Chan Adventures ₂₀₀₀}
- Maryland
- The Chesapeake Bay is an inland estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly enclosed by Maryland and site of the decisive Battle of the Chesapeake during the American Revolution, in which the privateer ship known as the Aquila played a pivotal role. {Assassin's Creed ₂₀₀₇} Geographical features of the bay include the Peregrine Cliffs {Jack Ryan series} overlooking the it and the small island of Rass. {Jacob Have I Loved ₁₉₈₀} In 2012, footage from July 4 2009 revealed that almost the entire population of an undisclosed town on the Eastern Shore was killed by a pandemic "disease" which turned out to be an infestation of mutated, parasitic isopods, which was subsequently covered up. {The Bay ₂₀₁₂}
- Massachusetts
- Dover is a small residential town near Boston, notable for having been host to sightings of the mysterious "Dover Demon" on April 21 and 22 of 1977. Thirty years after the original sightings, a group of hoaxers decided to fake a sighting of the Dover Demon to profit from the hype surrounding the cryptid, but all of them were mysteriously killed and their bodies were never found. {Lost Tapes ₂₀₀₈}
- The North Shore is an exceptionally notable part of Massachusetts, having been the site of the Salem Witch Trials {The Crucible ₁₉₅₃} and being characterized by the cities of Arkham, Dunwich, Innsmouth, and Kingsport. {Cthulhu mythos}
- New York
- Plum Island is a small island off of Long island, notable for the Plum Island Animal Disease Center and derisively called "Anthrax Island" by some. {Silence of the Lambs ₁₉₈₈} It is central to conspiracy theories, particularly that it is the origin of many unusual creatures such as the Montauk Monster, and it has been rumored since 2008 to be housing a live yeti. {Lost Tapes ₂₀₀₈}
- Oregon
- Springfield is simultaneously a major and minor city. {The Simpsons ₁₉₈₉}
- Pennsylvania
- Pittsburgh is a major city, the second-largest in Pennsylvania after Philadelphia. It is the base of operations for the Justice League affiliate organization known as Titans East, who code named it "Steel City." {DC Comics}
- South Dakota
- Wounded Knee Creek is a tributary of the White River in South Dakota, and notably was the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre conducted by the US 7th Cavalry regiment when a gun was accidentally discharged in the attempt to disarm the local Lakota. In 1973, Wounded Knee and the surrounding area was seized by the American Indian Movement in protest of government policy, which nearly led to an armed conflict, but was averted by FBI agent Ray Levoi. {Thunderheart ₁₉₉₂}
- Wyoming
- Devil's Tower is a geographic feature in Crook County notably the site of a landing by extraterrestrials which communicated through musical tones in 1977. {Close Encounters of the Third Kind ₁₉₉₇}
- Arkansas
Asia and the Australias: Visions of Cathay
- Mount Everest, known locally as Chomolungma or Sagarmatha, is the tallest mountain on Earth, and according to legend is home to the yeti. Everest is notoriously dangerous, and many die on its slopes each year in the effort to reach its peak. Notably, a May 1996 expedition led by veteran Everest guide Rob Hall met with disaster, {Into Thin Air ₁₉₉₇} as did a March 2005 expedition by billionaire explorer Mark Hordstrom, whose audio recordings indicate that it was something lurking in the blizzard that picked off his team rather than the weather itself. {Lost Tapes ₂₀₀₈}
- French Polynesia is an overseas collectivity of France, broadly divided into the Austral Islands, the Gambier Islands, the Leeward Islands, the Marquesas Islands, the Society Islands, the Tuamotou Archipelago, and the Windward Islands. One of the most notable islands within French Polynesia is Tahiti, the largest of the Windward Islands and serving as the cultural and political center of the whole collectivity. Tahiti was famously visited by Captain Bligh and the crew of the HMS Bounty in 1789 {Mutiny on the Bounty ₁₉₃₂, etc.} and by painter Charles Strickland in 1890 and again in 1895, when he formally settled there. {The Moon and the Sixpence ₁₉₁₉} For a time, it was said to be inhabited by "Deep Ones." {Cthulhu mythos}
- Japan is a Far East island nation, famed for the samurai of its feudal era.
- The Bonin Islands, located some 1,000 km south of Tokyo and controlled by Japan, have gained the unofficial name "Monster Island" after being relegated as a nature reserve for kaijū by the United Nations, which are contained their via chemical mists to repel them and magnetic walls to prevent flight from the island, {Destroy All Monsters ₁₉₆₈} but despite these precautions, several kaijū have escaped over the years. Before being relegated as a preserve, the largest island in the chain--Chichijima, formerly known as Peel Island--was used as a base of operations by Harvey Rupert Elder, better known as the supervillain Mole Man. {Marvel Comics}
- Malaysia, formerly known as Malaya, is a peninsular country in Southeast Asia.
- The Federated States of Micronesia is a western Pacific island nation, formerly part of the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. Within its borders are the Caroline Islands, a widely-scattered archipelago which includes the national capital on Pohnpei. The islands are said to have been associated with "the Deep Ones" historically. {Cthulhu mythos}
- The Kingdom of Thailand, historically known as Siam, is a Southeast Asian country in the center of the Indochinese Peninsula. It was famously visited by Anna Leonowens when she was contracted by then King of Siam Mongkut to teach his children. {Anna and the King of Siam ₁₉₉₄, The King and I ₁₉₅₁} While the Thai monarchy still exists today as the official government, in practice it is controlled by a military junta. Since 1932, Thailand has been controlled by military dictatorships which turn a blind eye to the criminal underworlds of various Thai cities, particularly Roanapur {Black Lagoon ₂₀₀₂} in the Ko Chang district, which has practically become autonomous of the junta under the control of crime syndicates and mercenary organizations, leading to its justified reputation as the most dangerous city in the world.
- Tibet is a mountainous region of Asia, controversially annexed by the People's Republic of China in 1951.
Europe: From Aiolio to Zenda
- The Aegean Sea is a body of water between Greece and Turkey. It is said that, in ancient times, it was inhabited by numerous peoples and beings--even some of the Olympian gods--and that it was named after the Athenian king Aegeus after he mistakenly committed suicide by throwing himself into it when he thought his son Theseus had been killed by the Minotaur. {Greek mythology}
- Iceland is an island country, geographically distant from the rest of Europe but considered part of it by virtue of being settled by Scandinavians. Though records of Icelandic habitation only go back to the 9th century, when the Norse found it, archaeological evidence suggests that it was actually inhabited as early as 11,000-10,500 BC, during which time it was a highland region called Dorthonion, part of a much larger Ancient European continent known at the time as Beleriand. {Tolkien's legendarium} While the rest of the ancient continent was submerged by meltwater from the end of the last glacial period, what would become Iceland remained above the waves. One of the most unusual geological features of iceland is the Snæfellsjökull stratovolcano in the western part of the island, which in and of itself is unremarkable except for being one of the few known natural entrances to Pellucidar, originally discovered by Arne Saknussemm. {Journey to the Center of the Earth ₁₈₆₄} Another notable feature of Iceland is the Langjökull glacier, where the head of the IronGiant landed after its apparent destruction in 1957, and where all its various parts traveled so that it could rebuild itself. {The Iron Giant ₁₉₉₉}
- The Portuguese Republic is the westernmost country in Europe, occupying the western end of the Iberian Peninsula and facing outward towards the Atlantic.
- The Azores is one of two autonomous regions of Portugal, nominally considered part of Europe despite its position in the North Atlantic. Almost since its discovery, its been suggested that the Azores is one of the last pieces of Atlantis to remain above water; this theory was given credence when the ruins of an Ancient Atlantean city were discovered on Arkantos Island in the 1980s. {Age of Mythology ₂₀₀₂} During World War II, the Allied-aligned multinational Blackhawk Squadron {DC Comics} was based on São Miguel Island. In 1969, the decommissioned facilities on "Blackhawk Island" were repurposed by the Portuguese government as João Paulo II Airport, simultaneously converting into a museum dedicated to the Blackhawks.
- The Russian Federation is geographically the single-largest country on Earth in the contemporary period and one of the most powerful states in the world; from 1922 to 1991, it was known as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics--the USSR or Soviet Union for short.
- The Kingdom of Sweden is a northern European country, part of Scandinavia. It is said that, in ancient times, the second-largest city in Sweden, Gothenburg, was occupied by the forest of Lothlórien, the realm of an elf named Galadriel. {Tolkien's legendarium}
- The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly called just Britain, is a western European island nation, often considering itself separate from the rest of Europe because of this. Broadly, it is divided into a number of constituent countries, namely England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, though there are many distinct regions within Britain besides these.
The Polar Regions: To The Ends Of The Earth
- Bouvet Island is the most remote island in the world. Though uninhabited today, it was found in 2004 to have once been the site of an ancient culture which may have been the origins of the Aztec, Cambodian, and Egyptian cultures, {Alien vs. Predator ₂₀₀₄} possibly the first civilization. {Assassin's Creed ₂₀₀₇}
Historical States
Many countries have come and gone over the course of history.
- The Republic of Hatay (actually a monarchy) was a short-lived state on the northeastern corner of the Mediterranean Sea, now part of Turkey; notably, within its former borders is the Canyon of the Crescent Moon, which itself contains the Temple of the Sun, resting place of the Holy Grail under the protection of an 11th century knight until its discovery by Henry Jones, Jr., in 1938, when the Grail fell down a chasm and was lost once again. {Indiana Jones ₁₉₈₁}
Archaeological Sites
Even centuries or millennia after they vanish from the face of the Earth, evidence of many ancient civilizations persists.
- Tanis, Egypt, was an ancient city that once served as a parallel religious center for Thebes during the Third Intermediate period, though no archaeological information from before Psusennes I exists. In 1936, an excavation was conducted by the Ahnenerbe of Nazi Germany in pursuit of the Ark of the Covenant. {Indiana Jones ₁₉₈₁}