ZERO PARADES wiki

World

The world of Zero Parades is an unnamed planet. 63% covered in water. One moon. The moon has cadmium mines. Humans got to space a few decades ago and still go regularly.

The calendar was reset to zero 96 years ago when a treaty called Latour-Woolgar was ratified. The era you’re playing in is called the End of History.

If you remember nothing else: it’s a Cold-War-shaped planet at the end of a long political pause that’s about to end.

How the world is divided

The world has four buckets of countries:

Superbloc — the communist megastate

The Superbloc is a single state made of 70 communist republics. It includes the People’s Republic of Kohila, where Hershel defected to in the early ’80s after being run out of Mircea.

If a character is from a “Republic of ___”, they’re Superbloc.

Developed World — wealthy capitalist countries

The current winners:

  • Ansaunne — bogs and poets.
  • La Luz — the resurgent imperial power. The big mover this era.
  • Havagerly — was independent, just got re-annexed by La Luz.
  • Tenantries of Saint Ulwen — also re-annexed in the Reunión.
  • Portofiro — the small tropical city-state where the game takes place.

Periphery — developing countries

  • Tsun’s Arc — borders Havagerly. Tsunese characters end up in Portofiro by harder routes since La Luz closed the Havagerly border.

Unknown — wildcard

  • Dream of Rustam — coastal country. Where the coffee for Rumba! Canned Coffee is grown. Its sailors don’t name boats after stars; they name them after dead sailors. (See Dream of Rustam.)
  • Republic of Mircea — defunct. Monotheistic, deity called Polaris. Hershel was born here.

The “Unknown” label is the world wiki’s own — these are countries it doesn’t sort cleanly.

The three powers everyone navigates

Below the country-list, there are three power centers Zero Parades’ politics keep returning to:

  • Superbloc — communist megastate, 70 republics.
  • La Luz — resurgent capitalist empire, currently re-annexing things.
  • EMTERR — the global financial/cultural stabilization apparatus that’s been keeping the End of History going for 40 years. EMTERR’s Cultural Blockade is why Luzian pop culture is bootlegged in Portofiro instead of imported.

Most NPCs you meet in Quisach are positioned by which of these three they’re closest to, or which one chased them out.

Geography that matters in the game

Terrestrial

  • Portofiro — small tropical island. Site of the city-state of the same name, which is where you play.
  • Territories — a series of island states in the Noscorrentes Sea, re-annexed in the Reunión. Includes the Tenantries of Saint Ulwen.

Marine

  • Karruk’s Fold — one of the world’s eight great oceanic trenches. Over 12,000 meters deep. A large mobile shadow with blinking lights moves around at the bottom. Rustamian folklore calls it the Deep Mason and treats it as a giant protector.
  • Lioaran Sea and Telmaar Gulf — bodies of water at the ends of Karruk’s Fold.
  • Noscorrentes Sea — a stretch of its coastline is dotted with bootleg goods manufacturers, from illicit factories to small family operations. That’s the supply chain feeding the Bootleg Bazaar.
  • The strait — unnamed body of water separating Portofiro from the mainland of La Luz.

How to read the world

  • End of History is a literal phrase here, not a metaphor. The Latour-Woolgar Treaty paused something, and the politics of the game are about what happens when the pause ends.
  • Cadmium mines on the moon is a specific detail. Cadmium is industrially valuable and toxic. Lunar mining is a 76-or-later development — the same era as the Space Program Memorial Bottoms (manufactured ‘76, before the ill-fated launch of ‘77).
  • 96 years since the reset is your tense. Anything older than 96 is “before the End of History”. Anything newer is in it.

Source note: the EMTERR Cultural Blockade reference comes from cross-page item entries (Wolf Cups, Ouroboros Black), not the World page itself. Same for the Reunión as the name of La Luz’s re-annexation wave.

Superbloc, La Luz, EMTERR, Portofiro, Tenantries of Saint Ulwen, Havagerly, Tsunese, Mircean, Rustamian.