Royaume du Canada

The night the bombs dropped was a moment of horror. Millions perished, in the blast and in the immediate aftermath. But it was also a moment of revelation. To some, this act of god was also God's grace. Not much is known of Louis de Bourbon's life before the event. The official story was that Louis de Bourbon had led the easy and pampered life of an aristocrat, moving from château to château in continental France. Through the machinations of Fortune, he had found himself stranded in Montréal on the fateful night. Its lost citizens had found themselves in need of a leader, and gravitated naturally towards he who had been their rightful sovereign.

Montréal was reborn under the King and under God. The Anglo heretics knew they had no place in the newly emancipated city and fled. Louis de Bourbon was crowned Louis XIX, King-in-Exile of France and King of Canada. Under his rule, Montréal was rebuilt, and bit by bit cities along the St-Laurent were reincorporated into the kingdom.

Good King Louis died in 2019 and was suceeded by his son, crowned the next year as Louis XX, who maintained stability in the kingdom and guided the reconstruction of his domain. Louis XX reigned until 2048 before being succeeded by his own son, Alphonse Ier.

Alphonse's first act after the coronation was to levy an army and march on Ottawa, the old capital of Canada. The city was captured through divine intervention and became the new southern border of the Bourbon kingdom. Now, Alphonse prepared the next invasion, which would finally take the borders of the Bourbon kingdom to lake Ontario.

The version of the official story circulated by the enemies of the King was much different. "Louis de Bourbon" was an opportunist of an unknown background, who had capitalised on the violent collapse of society to seize local power as a petty warlord, eventually carving out a small fief. To legitimise his rule, he had invented a new identity for himself, tenuously linked to the ancient prestige of France, using the feudal model to reward his subordinates.

Indeed, the Kingdom of France was composed of five duchies: Île-du-Canada, under the King's direct control, Estrie, under the control of Guillaume de St-Étienne; Mauricie, under the control of Archibald de Montcuq; Québec, under the control of the Archbishop of Québec, head of the Catholic Church in Canada; and most recently, Ottawa, which had been rewarded to the King's cousin, Charles de Bourbon. The duchies were established mostly as a military position, with some administrative privileges, although the bulk of administrative power is maintained by the Bourbon king.

Though, for the moment, the Dukes are in tight collaboration with the King, the monarch has many enemies. These include the Republicans, and within them the more radical Republican Socialists; the Anarchists; the Anglos (subdivided into Anglo-Republicans and Anglo-Monarchists, although the two usually work together; there are also Anglos in the radical leftist groups); inexplicably, the Bonapartists; and the extreme Theocrats, who want to replace the King with the Archbishop of Québec.

This opposition may complicate the King's ultimate aim: the reconquest of all New France and the subsequent de-anglification of the continent under one supreme Latin, Catholic authority.

Map: Alphonse's domains

Flag: Carillon-Sacré-Cœur

Focus: Expansion

Tech level: 1700s (Nation)

Population: 768,900 in 2050