Delaware, the forgotten land. A place that once held beauty, even if only a little. The place has changed in many ways, but in some ways it is still the same. Even though the state is small, there's still plenty going on here. Let me tell you what’s happened over the course of seventy years.
To better understand how Delaware is today, one would have to start back at about 1998. At that time, the U.S.A. was still in full swing. The first state was just a small cog of a larger machine, but a useful cog indeed. Large corporate presence through local and national banks, many of which were corporate owned and run. A low Corporate tax also led to higher corp presence. At the end of 1999, the corps running the banks slowly began to throw around their weight in corporate buyouts. New banks would open and close in the blink of an eye, and be replaced by another bank just to have the proccess repeat itself. This only proceeded to worsen after 2002 until one of the major banks, MBNA managed to buy out almost all of it's competitors. That was when Mitsuhama came in and bought them, resulting in the loss of an American banking industry giant.
-----But wait, didn't the U.S.A. have laws against starting monopolies back then? I mean, how could they hold the sole industry?-----
CHCash {04-15-57/05:47:13}
-----If you remember, that time was the Corporate Uprising. By 2002, corporate power was being established. All sorts of corporations around the world were starting to take over more and more dominant portions of their major industries.-----
YenMaster {04-15-57/0:7:34:14}
-----Notice, that old banking corp didn't buy out all of the banks. That must have been where Renraku managed to cut in...-----
DeWatcher {04-15-57/23:46:04}
-----First Union buyout. Scan on chummer.-----
DE SysOp {04-16-57/01:12:56}
Later in 2005, the only competitor of Mitsuhama was the First Union bank based out of Philadelphia, only 40 miles away. In what was an overnight takeover, First Union Bank became the Renraku Reserve Bank. This started the fierce corporate banking wars in the Wilmington Corporate Enclave. Of course, the Crash of 29 put both sides at an equal loss, but as soon as the Matrix was safe again, they were back to their old games.
-----That's the second time that the Wilmington Corporate Enclave has come up. What's up with that?-----
Cowboy {04-16-57/09:23:45}
-----Well, let me explain that later in the posting, Cowboy-----
BlueHen {04-16-57/17:34:12}
From there on, the two corps fought against each other to get in on the banking scene. After all these years, the fighting has never really stopped.
Then of course, there is the southern half of Delaware. In 2022, the Agriculture business was failing. Repeated waves of VITAS killed off thousands of workers in the southern half of the state, which in turn caused crop yields to dwindle down to almost nothing. But, soon after it was thought all was lost, Saeder-Krupp stepped in. At first, the locals didn't mind when the corp showed up with all sorts of goodies, all in the name of keeping production high... at first. In a year's time, all the farms were bought from their owners, leaving many families and businesses in the southern half of the state without jobs or the homesteads they had lived in. The southern half has in effect become nothing more than a corporate owned and patrolled agrifarm.
-----So? Who gives a frag about the bottom half of this miserable little excuse for a state? Amd patrolled farmlands? Gimme a break...-----
City Slicker {04-17-57/11:23:32}
-----Slicker, ever thought about where your food comes from?-----
Agriman {04-17-57/11:45:45}
-----...-----
City Slicker {04-17-57/11:59:12}
-----I'll take that as a big no. How much of what you eat is soy? Soykaf, growlie bars, kibble, that fast food drek? Unless you're living off devil rat or can afford the corporate menu, you're eating a lot of soy. Now take into account how much farmland the U.C.A.S. has as a nation after the seccession of the NAN and the CAS. Not a lot. So Delaware has this county that takes up a little more than a third of the state, all of it arable farmland, and that land provides a hell of a lot of soybeans. That's one huge resource that is more than worth guarding. S-K makes a whole lotta money off that land.-----
Agriman {04-17-57/12:12:12}
In 2026, the Wilmington Corporate Enclave was built Wilmington, covering the entire downtown area and then some. During the zoning of the WCE, many metahumans were driven out of their homes in order for the corporate grounds to be expanded. Thousands of people were forcefully removed from their homes and left with nothing. Those who were driven out began the downward spiral of events leading up to the formation of the Wilmington Sprawl and Bridgetown.
-----On another note, BlueHen forgot to put in this extra little tidbit. This happened Wilmington before the 2000's as well. I'm sure he knows this, but he probably just forgot. Back in the 1970's, high income housing had expanded into what used to be urban housing projects. It forced many of the poorer residents to relocate to outlying areas such as Chester.-----
DE SysOp {04-18-57/20:14:57}
The WCE soon became the largest corporate sector known in Delaware and now handles millions of corporate accounts each day. A small portion of the actual enclave itself are corporate beavervilles; places where corporate families and grand high poobahs live, tucked away from the more violent sprawlers.
-----Violent? Who says we're violent? Whoever said that had better hide or I'll kill them!-----
Bluerock {04-17-57/13:13:13}
The corporate tax in the Wilmington Enclave was low enough to attract corporations from around the country to the city of Wilmington to do business. It was so low in fact, that major offices of Renraku, Yamatetsu, Ares Macrotechnologies, and Saeder-Krupp can still be found here.
-----Money, chemical and pharmaceutical goodies. Where are the Azzies?-----
Pyramid Watcher {04-18-57/12:56:43}
-----Too far north I gather for Aztechnologies intrests. While Delaware has it's corporate strongpoints, it isn't as Byzantine for the Azzies liking.-----
Watcher {04-18-57/15:34:16}
Soon after the forming of the WCE, the University of Delaware was moved from Newark to the enclave proper back in 2030. The school was on the verge of bankruptcy due to the losses from the Year of Chaos and the Crash of '29. The WCE slowly managed to revitalize and economize the university in an attempt to promote education.
-----Yeah, right. Revitalize the education for who? Rich corporate brats, that's who.-----
Wyzard {04-18-57/21:01:01}
Since 2033, the University of Delaware has expanded its reputation into many fields. It even houses one of the most advanced technology departments in the country. It also has been the home of many other successful members in the fields of Magical Theory and Conjuring. Along with the University, the WCE has also moved the DAM, or Delaware Art Museum, within the boundaries of the Enclave as well, along with the older relics from the Old New Castle courthouse, and several other public and historic items. The long and the short of it though, is that in between the years of 2030 and 2036, everything of lasting historic or cultural value was moved to the WCE.
It was also during these years that one of the most interesting things about the Wilmington sprawl occurred. It began to grow. It expanded larger than most Delawareans would have thought. The southern half of Delaware had been displaced too by the machinations of S-K in 2022 and had been roaming from place to place for a place to live, so they moved to the sprawl with the refugees of the WCE.
This has resulted in population being not so much large as it is dense in the state of Delaware. however population is also growing steadily, causing further amounts of population density. Current estimates on population growth show that within a few years, Philadelphia's Sprawl could be in for a surprise when the Wilmington Sprawl catches up to it. The borders between these two sprawls are getting thinner with each new building.
-----Look out Philly, here we come!-----
Squareman {04-20-57/14:00:01}
-----Come get some...-----
Armed and Waiting in Chester {04-20-57/14:02:00}
However, the growth of the Enclave and the Sprawl did not occur without side effects. Ever since the colonization by the east, Delaware has been the victim of unnecessary dumping. The Delaware River is as bad as it ever was, with local corporate facilities dumping in the river to this day. This has had a terrible affect on the state, although you couldn't tell by looking at the WCE.
-----Hmmm, sounds like Blue Hen is a nature boy... Wonder if this guy is just trying to get his shamanistic views across, or whether he's an eco-terrorist.-----
Burnup {04-20-57/14:12:56}
The most disturbing accounts have been occuring where the effects can bee seen the most: Bridgetown, an area of shanties underneath the Delaware Memorial Bridge. Toxic elementals and spirits have been sighted with disturbing frequency and their effects are noticeable.
-----He's not kidding. I swear to god, I was patroling the bridge under contract, when I had to respond to an accident at the Delaware Incoming end. A toxic water elemental had randomly attacked a corporate tanker of fertilizer. Huge mess, no survivors except for the elemental.-----
DE Star {04-20-57/15:13:57}
-----He may not be kidding, but he's neglected to mention another toxic hotspot: DelCity Zone. The old Texaco refinery (yeah, at age 79 you can bet I remember those days) draws the fragging things like moths to a flame. The residents are even starting to look a bit odd. I wouldn't be surprised if somehow the spirits were corrupting the folks around here.-----
Texacan {04-20-57/15:57:34}
-----You mean like fragging insect spirits? Toxic bugs, man. Now that's scary.-----
Burnup {04-20-57/16:09:34}
-----You must be really gullible to believe that. There's nothing to prove the existence of Toxic Bugs.-----
Skeptik {..-..-../--:--:--}
-----There's nothing to back up the origins of the occurence of fovaes in Aztlan either...-----
Pyramid Watcher {04-20-57/16:54:24}
Meanwhile in Dover, the UCAS kept its military presence in Delaware through the Dover Air Force Base while everything seemed to be going to hell in a handbasket around them. The U.C.A.S. kept the base running, using it mostly for large cargo planes and military training. It keeps a rigidly guarded border around it and the huge amount of land it covers in central Kent County which annoys the Corporations to no end. Military patrols keep watch over the fences twenty four hours a day in order to keep the premises secure. For more info on the so-called "Disputed Territory" see the Disputed section of this board.
Another interesting thing about Dover Air Force Base is that with the loss of Parris Island to the CAS when they ceceded from the UCAS, we lost our East Coast marine training facility. Left without training facilities, the UCAS decided that they would expand the base's territory into the surrounding area and set in a new marines base adjacent to the DAFB. Only a few miles to the east, the New Dover Marine facility was added and equipped with some of the best training facilities in the UCAS.
-----Semper Fidelis-----
Soldierman
Last but not least, is the one exception to the laws of the Agrifarms in southern delaware's Sussex County. The Sore Points. the Sore Points popped up around the beach areas of the southern half of the state at about the same time that the S-K agrifarms started booting people off of their land. The displaced that were too poor to even get to Wilmington ended up in the strip of beaches that stretch several miles along the Atlantic Ocean. It quickly became a smuggler's haven and a shady place of business for many of the displaced of Sussex County.
But, of course the corps wouldn't let anyone get comfortable for very long. S-K and a couple of local corps bought out Lewes and Rehoboth Beach through official and unofficial channels. The two beaches became resort towns for corporate clients, shoving the sprawlers out again to the smaller towns like Bethany, Henlopen and Dewey Beach
From then on, Delaware progressed into what it is today: A small area, inhabited with displaced citizens, ruled by seemingly omniscient corporations and military presence. But all may not be lost. enough tension between the corps and the UCAS military in Dover have begun to spark fires in the First State as to who will be calling the shots in governing the state. And everyone knows that stuff like that is great for the shadow operatives. So just remember: use the info that's posted here to your advantage. Know who bought out what, and where your best places to hide are. You'll live longer.
