Prophecy: The Authority Game- August 28-30, 2009

The year is 2019, and around the world hunger and despair are the norm. Global Warming has reared its ugly head causing violent and unpredictable weather, diminishing farmland, and making many high population area uninhabitable. Tensions rise and peace is tenuous at best. Only The Authority Game, the global competition to control vital resources offers any hope for the future, at least for the winning nation...

2010- Pressure from Human Rights groups leads to UN placement of trade sanctions on China. To end the sanctions and stave off economic collapse, China eliminates one child policy. Population begins to grow unchecked straining food reserves and exacerbating an already growing unemployment rate.

2012- Global warming contributes to rapidly rising sea levels. Coastal cities around the world are flooded, millions of refugees head inland seeking refuge. Inland water supplies grow increasingly scarce and desertification accelerates.

2013- International tension rises as competition over necessary resources like oil, coal, arable farmland, and fresh water become expensive commodities controlled by wealthy powerful multi-national corporations. Angry and desperate people take to the streets protesting their governments' inability to secure them the basic necessities needed to survive. Once powerful governments collapse. Regional needs split the American Congress and the American government begins to teeter.

2014- The Sino-Indian War- Desperate to control the Afghan oil fields, India and China clash. Within weeks, these two nuclear powers unleash a storm of anihilation on each other, decimating each others' major population centers, and contaminating central and southern Asia with deadly levels of radiation.

2015- G50 Summit convenes in Dublin trying to avert future war. Cuban ruler Raul Castro proposes an alternative to war, an ultimate competition pitting each surviving nation's best and brightest in a competition to the death, the winning nation receiving control over ever dwindling reserves of natural resources. Multi-National Coporations hoping to be seen as the saviors of humanity form the Resources League and begin designing and propagandizing the games. The Authority Games are born.

2016- The first Authority Game is held. Against all odds, tiny New Zealand with its fierce Maori warriors claims victory and takes control of the world's vital resources.

2018- The United States fragments: Washington DC maintains control over the Coastal Federation of United States, your home, which encompasses New England, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the West coast. Other new factions arise in Appalachia, the South, and the Mid-West.

2019- The United States has never won at the games. The inability of governments to keep their people happy is evident. Riots, protests, and violent rebellions are now commonplace. If the United States does not win The Authority Game this year, there may not be another chance in the future.