LIFE IN THE RSOA
Life in the RSOA
Civilian life under the Reclaimed States of America.
Social structure
Society is divided between an elite of government workers and senior officials, and a much larger labouring population. Civilian labour rebuilds and maintains the cities under RSOA control.
Access to major cities, fresh water, and other amenities helps the state attract and retain its population.
Societal values (enforced through propaganda) are largely traditional (i.e gender roles).
Despite this, there is an unnaturally prominent focus on sex. Public sex is considered normal, as is discussion of sexual subjects.
Relationships & family
Personal relationships are heavily discouraged. Marriage is an exclusive privilege of the elite – such a government officials engaging in political relationships with NEUF ambassadors.
Children are raised by the state and families are split up where possible.
Media & belief
RSOA society rejects sentimentality in favour of focusing on the goal of rebuilding the USA.Anything considered a distraction from that goal is forbidden or discouraged, as is anything that may inspire loyalty towards anything other than the RSOA.
PROPAGANDA
The RSOA forbids all media unless it supports ideas such as:
- The wasteland is dangerous and inhospitable.
- All non-RSOA survivalists are murderous Roaches and cannot be trusted.
- Giving your body to the cause is the greatest gift you can give your nation.
- The old world was flawed; the RSOA is building a better version of the old USA.
- Emotions are a weakness, and only the strongest survive.
posters by kat/mysterycrewton
CIVILIAN SOCIETY & SOCIAL CASTES
Upbringing: The State Creches (Ages 0–16)
The nuclear family is considered a rival to state loyalty. No citizen raised in the RSOA knows their biological parents. Children born from the Repopulation Program (or seized in raids) are raised in numbered brutalist boarding schools called State Creches. They are assigned random last names from a maintained list.
Children are taught that President Ember is their collective father and the RSOA is their mother. Crying, hugging, or forming “best friendships” (pair-bonding) is punished (often by separation and beatings) as unlawful sentimentality.
Boys (90% of children) are raised in hyper-competitive military dorms preparing for age 16. Girls (10%) are segregated early, denied education, and medically monitored until puberty determines whether they are fertile (Repopulation Program) or infertile (SR Division).
The Culling Day
On a boy’s 16th birthday, biometric and cognitive testing seals his fate:
Top 5% (Intellectual/Elite Lineage): First Light Universities (Scientists, Engineers, DRAM Bureaucrats) or advanced pathways through the RSOA Armed Forces.
Fit Majority (~75%): Conscripted into the RSOA Armed Forces for a mandatory 6-year term.
Physically Unfit / High Aesthetic (~5%): Held for induction into the SR Division at age 18.
The Remainder (~15% + Discharged Soldiers at 22): Assigned permanently to the lower-class Labour Corps.
STATUS OF WOMEN
Women are strictly denied education under the RSOA. Roughly 98% of all women are funnelled into either the Repopulation Program (if fertile) or the SR System (if infertile). The remaining ~2% of infertile women fall into four strict categories:
Matrons / Handlers: Older, unremarkable, or fanatically loyal infertile women assigned to instruct, grade, and physically discipline SRs, or oversee Repopulation Facilities.
State Entertainers (Singers/Performers): A tiny handful of musically gifted infertile women kept as singers/performers for Elite lounges and propaganda broadcasts.
Medical Test Subjects: Infertile women deemed incompatible with society or who fail obedience conditioning, shipped to black-site labs as human guinea pigs.
The Lower Class: Labourers
Work grueling 12-to-14-hour shifts clearing rubble, pouring concrete, farming, or working in state munitions factories. They wear drab grey/brown coveralls, live in concrete dormitory blocks, and eat flavorless synthetic ration paste.
Inside the walls, they have clean water, shelter from acid rain, and protection from raiders.
Because Labourers are almost 100% male and have zero access to SRs or the Repopulation Facilities, the state prevents riots by stripping away sexual taboos. While romantic pair-bonding is illegal, casual, transactional, or public sex in dormitories, bathhouses, and designated “Relief Zones” is encouraged as basic biological maintenance, alongside state-sanctioned synthetic alcohol/sedatives and blood-sport broadcasts.
The Upper Class: Civilian Elites
DRAM Commissars, Senior Scientists, Chief Engineers, Propaganda Directors, and High Command live in climate-controlled penthouses in First Light, enjoying real food, tailored dark uniforms, and longevity medicine.
Marriage is an exclusive Elite status symbol, used for political alliances or as a reward – granting top officials a rare infertile woman from Elite lineage as a trophy “State Wife” alongside their Class-S SR.
Elites display assigned SRs and compare their ratings at lounges and state functions. State-sanctioned sexual exploitation coexists with constant surveillance by the Ministry of Unity secret police for treason or emotional attachments.