New Themyscira

Formerly the Dutch island of Aruba, New Themyscira was recolonized early on in the Second Renaissance. As the technology boom spread across the world, certain places attracted more technology than others, and there was a certain something that drew tech developers to the Caribbean. The magnificent expansion of technology, and the associated ideas with it caused a number of social and societal upheavals and it is rather not much of a surprise that there were groups of people who rebelled against this technology, and people who very deeply embraced it. While appearing as the former, the pioneers of New Themyscira were very much the latter.

Appearance:

New Themyscira was a pre-planned, chartered, and computer designed nation from the ground up. The almost uninhabited (at that point) island of Aruba was chosen to serve as the new site of this dream project. The old ruins of the petroleum era cities were demolished, and gene creches went to work reseeding the island with tropical flora as well as establishing fauna breeding centers to populate the island with the appropriate animals, with emphasis being placed on colorful birds, butterflies, and other similar creatures.

The Hippolyta Arcoplex is built in the image of the crystal spires and togas style futuristic architecture. The Central structure serves as the command and control center for the entire island, and houses the vast majority of the island nation's industrial capacity. The geofront under the arco is more extensive than most normal geofronts, but as Hippolyta was built from scratch and not in the pre-existing core of a city, the engineers decided to bury as much of the infrastructure elements of the arco as possible, leaving only the inhabited, functional, and aesthetic elements above ground. The geofront is connected to the 7 demi-arcos that ring Hippolyta.

Hippolyta is a tapered spire, rising from a circular base. At it's highest non-antenna point, the building is 1,230 meters tall, with another 100 meters of masts and antenna rising up to catch the data streams of the CogNet.

The Seven Sisters is the collective term given to the 7 demi-arcos that ring Hippolyta, and serve as the residential and commercial part of the arcoplex. Each of the seven has a name given to it, rather than the more common practice of giving demi-arcos numeric names or naming them after the megacorps that own and run them. Maia, Electra, and Taygete demi-arcos are residential in nature and compared the most residential arcos they are low density populated, with each housing just 10,000 rather than the more typical 20,00 for a demi-arco or 500,000 for a dedicated high density residential arco.Alcyone, Celaeno, and Merope are mixed commercial and light residential, with Merope being fairly close to what most people would consider 'slums'. Asterope is the second largest demi-arco, only smaller than Maia, but it houses the New Themyscira higher education facilities, scientific facilities, and the military college.

The Dream of Elizabeth Holloway

Elizabeth Holloway was an industrial baronness who became not just wealthy, but very powerful and infuential in the politics of the United States of South America. Coming from a lineage of former American Ex-patriots, the Holloways were known in Brazil and Venezuela for being savvy investors, real estate moguls and for helming the successful Holloway Security Commision, a well known and respected mercenary operation. The HSC group purchased the almost defunct property of Aruba from Venezuela, and started the process of reforming the island. During the previous Resource Wars, Aruba had functioned as a forward base for the US military, and had switched hands several times before ultimately being abandoned after being bombarded with Argentine made 'Desperado' chemical rockets. The island biosphere was sanitized, and efforts began to repopulate the barren rock with plantlife, and later animal stock.

The Hippolyta arco began construction under the aegis of being a new headquarters for the HSC, and some rumored it was going to be a venture into HSC entering the ranks of the megacorps by getting involved in investment and banking. There were also rumors of Aruba being turned into a shopping paradise, or a national level commercial resort owned by HSC. The truth was somewhat more elusive. There were certainly strong women in the history of the USSA, but for the most part, these individuals were exceptions to the male rule. Elizabeth Holloway had spent years living under the tyrannical rule of first her father, and then the miniature dictatorship that was her first marriage. She knew about the Latin League's dirty secret, a long history of domestic abuse and the oppression of women across all spectrums of life. Even after escaping two dictators in her life, Elizabeth was still confronted by the male dominant attitude at every turn in business. There were men inside HSC who wanted to take her down, and she was surrounded by rivals within the security industry who wanted to see her fail not just because she was their rival, but because she was female. They expected her to learn her place.

The Legacy of the Amazon

Elizabeth was fascinated by the ideal of the Amazon warrior, and set this as her personal project outside of running HSC. She desired to see an amazon nation rise up, granting sanctuary to the worthy women of the USSA and indeed, the worthy women of the entire world. She reasoned that such a collection of feminine wisdom, guarded by female strength at arms would see a rebirth of culture and honoring of women not seen since the time of the Petroleum Era. In many parts of the world, in the Second Dark age, many women were reduced to nothing more than brood mares to replenish the decimated populations. Nations couldn't fight wars without soldiers, and the only method they had was forced reproduction. This was much more common in the poorer parts of the world that were not able in avail themselves with the twin technologies of cloning and robotics.

HSC started training and equipping their now famous Amazon Battalions. These groups consisted of exclusively female soldiers, trained in combat and equipped with the best gear that HSC could equip them with. Rather than the standard issue armor and gear, the Amazon Battalions were equipped with stylized equipment with the intended purpose of making the people they were fighting realize that they were fighting not faceless soldiers, but Amazon warriors. While rather ridiculous at times, the appearance of Latin battle armors with stylized breasts, flared hips and artificial hair had its desired effect. The appearance of Amazon mercenaries could quickly demoralize an insurgent group, or provoke more impulsive enemies to behave in predictably violent ways, allowing the battle minded and trained Amazons to take them apart.

Combined Arms and the Amazon Warriors

The core of the Amazon combat philosophy was the combined arms tactics proven repeatedly during the Petroleum and Resource Wars eras. Their most visible soldiers were the power armor troopers, with their feminized power armor, hyperedge spears and over-under mag rifles. These soldiers seldom went anywhere alone, they had continual support from VTOL transports and gunships, and routinely had support from light mecha and specialized mecha. These supporting machines didn't have the same stylizing as the power armor, but did have the Amazon insignia and livery.

HSC stepped up its Amazon programs as the units continued to be successful and profitable. Its final two branches were the HSC airship wing, and the Andromache program. The HSC Airship wing saw the company purchase a number of military style armed airships. These ships were updated with better technology and weaponry than available on the general market. Most of the ships were purchased from either the South African United Republics (SAUR) or the Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere (ACPS) and were conventionally equipped. After their upgrading, the ships were able to carry and deploy power armor soldiers and launch and recover their supporting VTOLs. These ships were, however, not on par with the destroyers and frigates employed by the Atlantic Federation.

The Andromache Program was created with the intention of genetically engineering superior women, using the power of science and technology to counter the traditional problems faced by women compared to men. This program was kept very quiet as its intended purpose was to create genetic superhumans, a clear and flagrant violation of the Human+ laws of the Tycho Conventions. While there were many nations and megacorps involved in this research, the power of the conventions were most often levied to keep smaller nations, powers, and groups from getting involved in what was slowly becoming the SuperHuman club.

The Big Move

HSC did start the move from its main offices at the HSC-Demiarco in Brasilia, Brazil, but this was largely a covering operation. Holloway did move a large portion of HSC's equipment, especially the HSC mainframe LAISC Artemis to the New Themyscira site. Once the core components were in place, and those Amazon units loyal to her idea, along with similarly supportive personnel were transferred to the island she activated Operation Typhoon. A number of Andromache project created supersolders went into action and severed the connections between HSC, the USSA and New Themyscira. There was a resulting and expected backlash as several Venezuelan army units were dispatched to Aruba to reclaim the island from the idiot female utopianists, and a nucleus of HSC mercenaries organized to strike back at their former employer for breaking up the company and ending their employment. The skirmishes lasted several days as the Venezuelan forces were quickly defeated by the Amazons, while the HSC 'Civil war' lasted several weeks and culminated with Andromache special forces assassinating several of the leaders of the rival faction.

The Petition

Unknown to most of even the involved parties, Artemis, the HSC LAISC had been in talks with several other AISCs in the hemisphere, especially those in the Atlantic Federation. The subject of these summits were to establish New Themyscira as a neutral nation, dedicated to women. The talks were drawn out and tense as if they were handled poorly, could provoke an international incident between the USSA and the Atlantic Federation, something neither side was particularly interested in. The talks were concluded, and after several attempts at cyberwarfare between the Island and the USSA an agreement was reached. New Themyscira would be recognized as a free port, a free nation, and would retain its military for purposes of self defense in light of hostilities remaining between the island and its former owners, the USSA. In exchange for recognizing New Themyscira, the USSA gained assurances from the Federation that the island would not be used as a base for Federation warships, and no troops would be deployed to the island. There was also a clause that New Themyscira would not be considered as an addition to the Federation's Caribbean League state without consent from Venezuela.

The New Nation of New Themyscira

New Themyscira was established as a new nation, and a free port of trade. While the first few years were tough, structures had to be finished, and financial support from the now defunct HSC gone, many changes and compromises had to be made. New Themyscira survived from financial support from business women, shadowrunners, and other groups channeling money into the island. The Amazons still found their services in demand, as they had garnered a fierce reputation around the world. The Atlantic Federation would remain a regular employer of Amazon mercenaries, providing financial and at times material support to their forces. The Federation remained uninterested and unimpressed with the Andromache program, and did little to support the Amazon Supersoldiers, preferring to use their own Coordinator Program supersoldiers.

The non-military side of the island grew at an astounding rate. The idea of a female only nation attracted positive attention around the world. A large number of wealthy independent women immigrated to the island, bringing their power and finances, as well as bringing other worthy women with them, artists, artisans, writers and entertainers, and so forth. The island experienced a cultural explosion as a nexus of fashion, art, and creativity came together under the defensive aegis of the Amazon mercenaries.

The Israel of the Caribbean

New Themyscira isn't the perfect island paradise. The defenses of the island, both in the CogNet and on the air and water are regularly tested. Mercenaries, bounty hunters, vigilantes and criminals in the USSA have made the island a target, and in many ways living in New Themyscira is much like living in modern Israel. The island is very close to the mainland of South America and can be easily reached via VTOL, surface craft or submersible making forays, raids, and shadowruns against the island relatively easy. The amazons guarding the island have zeal and vigilance on their side, and have an advantage in tech as the Federation has funneled some useful gadgets their way. The bigger thorn the island is in the side the USSA, the better it is for the Federation.

As an island of militant women, it is easy for people to create all sorts of crazy ideas and rumors about New Themyscira and its Amazon inhabitants. The two most common and horribly incorrect themes are that the Themyscirans are all raging lust filled lesbian nymphomaniacs. The second is that they are ardent man-hating armor clad hell-shrews. Both of these perspectives are popular, with the Federation favoring the sex starved lesbian nymphettes and the USSA favoring man killing she-demons. Given that there are seldom more than a half dozen men on the island at any given time out of a population close to 250,000, there is a large deal of personal physical freedom enjoyed by the residents of the island. Given the hyper-saturation of sex in the Federation media, the presence of nude beaches and a very relaxed dress code almost automatically shifts to all night orgies and men being abducted to pleasure the Themyscirans. It doesn't help that there are shows dedicated to the this trope, and a common stock character in Federation action sex dramas is the Themysciran sex-pot amazon warrior.

The Real Deal

The citizens of New Themyscira, colloquially known as the Amazons, run the gamut of races, ethnicity, political persuasions, religions, and personal creeds. Statistically the number of bisexual, polyamorous, and homosexual citizens is statistically little different than any other comparable population sizing. There are a good number of children who reside on the island, and roughly half of these children are conceived the old fashion way, either through arranged meetings, traveling abroad, or CogNet dating sites. The other half are conceived as products of science and the laboratory and range from the standard artificial insemination to accepting genetically modified material to simply inducing the egg to begin gestating into a clone of the mother.

In Utero genetic modification is very common in New Themyscira, as portions of the Andromache program have been made readily available to the citizens of the island. These modified embryos go on to become the next generation of Pureborn Amazons. The most common modifications for Amazons besides standard genetic fixes and screenings are increased height, physical stature and minimal to moderate chest size (sometimes large breasts can be difficult to wedge into a suit of power armor) as well as muscle augmentation, reflex augmentation, and intelligence augmentation.

Contrary to popular belief, not all of the residents of New Themyscira are fully fledged and blooded warrior maidens. While a significant proportion are involved in the military, this is nowhere near as high a number as many would think. The island makes use of a large amount of industrial and military automation. Its association with the Federation ensures that the island has ready access to robot technologies and drone war material. The highly visible Amazon warriors do serve frequently in leadership roles, but they have been genetically enhanced and trained from birth for this role. For these reasons, they excel in their given fields of expertise.

Time Goes By

New Themyscira has been in existence for roughly 150 years, long enough that the founding members have since passed away, many having reached remarkably advanced ages. The massive embrasure of arcanotechnology has spurred the growth of the nation, swelling its national pride, and its economic power. While still nothing more than a footnote compared to the multinational Latin League of the USSA or the global superpower of the Atlantic Federation, its global influence far outstrips its diminutive size and small population. New Themyscira is known for its influences over art and fashion design. Almost all fashion designers of global fame have either come from the island, or studied there for a decent amount of time. With the constant activity of the island's defenses, the tiny nation has pioneered several now copied techniques for maintaining fluid military barriers, waging cyber warfare, and methods of rapidly deploying and retrieving power armor units.

The Andromache program has survived and matured, with the end result no longer being the creation of super soldiers. The nation retains its own clandestine super soldier programs, but the Andromache program has been used to upgrade and enhance the genetic stock of New Themyscira and after 150 years of it's operation, it has had a profound effect on the population of the island. The average native Themysciran woman is 6 feet tall, and averages 170 pounds, but retain athletic builds due to the density of enhanced muscle tissue.

Given the attitude and nature of the island, it serves as a natural beacon to many action minded women, and a large number of female shadowrunners call New Themyscirans. There are as an effect of this, a large percentage of female ex-pat clones, cyborgs, genetic augments, and parapsychics who reside on the island.

Roles of Amazon Warriors:

Personal Bodyguards: there are celebrities, entertainers, business magnates and other people who routinely retain the services of bodyguards. Given the attractiveness, and quick thinking and training of Themysciran warriors, they are a popular choice for said role. These are seldom in serious situations, as most such employers have them more as part of their entourage than a serious security asset. When called upon though, these warriors are effective in putting down threats and protecting their charges.

Personal Bodyguard Cadres: Often entire groups or units of Amazons will be hired as mercenaries, typically to function in a ceremonial fashion, though most Amazon units require a certain amount of combat time, training, and preparedness exercises through the duration of their contract. These larger forces often guard demi-arcos, remote locations, or groups of people, such as the semi-nobility of the megacorp owning families, the actual nobility of a smaller nation, or vanguard of some other faction that wants a demonstration of power and beauty.

Shadowrunning: Amazons routinely do shadowrunning, both in the interest of New Themyscira and the private employ of others. They favor martial roles, though stealth operations are seldom their style. These shadowrunners tend to draw from the more 'interesting' members of the Amazon pool and include parapsychic martial artists, gun adepts, and both bio and cybernetic augments. They will do smash and grab jobs, raiding tech companies and other powers for their tech R&D which invariably makes its way back to Artemis and New Themyscira.

Author's Note

This submission and several others to come were inspired after a heated debate over the validity of Gal Gadot to play Wonder Woman in the currently upcoming Superman vs Batman movie, and how it was an affront to the importance of the character and how it was typical of Hollywood to pick a skinny model to play an amazon. New Themyscira is the foundation for several more submissions that will merge parts of the Wonder Woman mythos into the Cosmic Era. This is the 'magical island' that creates superhuman amazon warriors.