The World of ESPLAR in the Post-BNV20 Pandemic: 2023

In 2023, the 50th anniversary of the Evanshire Super Pro League of Auto Racing, planet Earth is changed.

In the aftermath of the worst pandemic the world has ever seen, BNV20, which began in Bonn in August 2020, and proceeded to infect almost 1 billion people, and killing almost 70 million, has seen a climatic shift in the geopolitical landscape. The traditional superpowers of the US, Russia, Europe, China and Brazil were changed forever by the pandemic, and power is shifting to several key areas such as Japan, Altruras, Sapmi, and Poland. Democracy thrives on planet Earth, as a united democratic Korea as well as a united democratic China look to maintain Earth's fragile post BNV20 power balance.

In this post pandemic world, military conflicts are completely nonexistent and the United Nations holds unparalleled influence over global politics. Nuclear weapons are forever abolished, and WMDs are virtually nonexistent with the reaffirmation and reinforcing of the Geneva Treaties. Even now, contentious issues regarding territorial disputes remain a problem.

Nationalism is now purely expressed through the planet's major sporting events; football, basketball, hockey, etc; and especially the upcoming 2024 Olympics in Paris. But most important are the motorsports events; the International Formula Racing Committee, or IFRC, runs the most prestigious racing series on Earth with Formula NX, but Formula Sigma and its derivative series remain very important as well. Arguably the most important after IFRC is the Evanshire Super Pro League of Auto Racing, or ESPLAR, which is Earth's premier stock car racing series. ESPLAR has numerous derivative series as well all over the globe, and it is here where nationalism takes root and rivalries made on the circuit.

ESPLAR has had a tumultuous few years in the BNV20 years; after Julia Truong swept the 2020 ESPLAR Elite Series season by winning a quarter of the season and finishing consistently, ESPLAR resisted implementing a playoff system. In 2021, Laura Kerrivan managed to stay consistent and finally win her only Morson-Austin Trophy that year in a pandemic-shortened season. The next year, another pandemic shortened season, there was the inevitable return of the Greater Kanto-Saihara rivalry. Greater Kanto managed to narrowly win that year's rivalry, but Saihara will be back for revenge for 2023. Other notable teams are also waiting in the wings for their chance in the spotlight.

As for IFRC, Formula NX saw a shock announcement that Naoto Kazami, the double one champion of the series, was retiring out of the series after being infected with BNV20, his symptoms manifesting during practice for the 2020 FNX Chinese Grand Prix. The next year, no one managed to gain a sizeable advantage over the other, though in the end Felix Krebs driving for Mercedes won the championship. The team's title went to Ferrari after Thomas Bennett and Jerry Evans managed to squeeze rookie Balint Kiraly out of the 4th and 5th spots. 2022 saw 2nd year driver Julius Andersson win the title over Thomas Bennett and Noel Schlegel after a hard-fought battle in Suzuka.

As a reminder, ESPLAR shares no relation with any events in real life as ESPLAR is a fictional universe.

Altruras
Altruras managed to weather the BNV20 storm thanks to its position and island nature. However, the archipelago suffered 2 complete lockdowns, the first from March-October 2021 while the region developed a vaccine, and again from April-October 2022 to squash the XN008 (Sumatra) variant of BNV20.

United States
The United States may not have been as badly affected by BNV20 as many had feared, with most cases being in the south and midwest, but other events during the 2021-23 period shaped the American motorsports scene forever. In 2021, many of ESPLAR's lower tier series grinded to a halt, and did not resume until 2022. The 2022 season was further hampered by severe weather including the infamous 2022 Super Outbreak that spanned over half the country and destroyed Kansas Speedway to the ground. Other tracks needed repairs, and only fans' incredible dedication and funding helped ESPLAR's lower tiers survive the storm. Several of the 4th tier series merged into larger series temporarily until 2024.

Caribbean
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Mexico/Central America
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South America
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Africa
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France
France was one of the worst affected countries by BNV20, but that is not stopping the French Fifth Republic from completing a years-long transition to help the historically oppressed Breton minority finally gain the autonomous status that the region long needed. Brittany, now known since 2022 as Breizh, recognized the Breton Celtic language and is now one of the two main languages of the region, the other of course being French. Corsica gained the similar status back in 2014. Naoned (formerly Nantes) was removed from the Pays-Loire region and made the capital of Breizh.

With Paris Autodrome not hosting a race in 2023, France will not host an ESPLAR event this season, but Naoned is in contention for a 2024 slot. Breizh is slowly becoming more Breton and less French, in a reflection of regional identity shifts occurring across the globe.

Germany
Germany, the hardest hit country of the BNV20 pandemic, saw strange happenings in Bremen during the course of the outbreak. In 2021, construction of the Lehesterdeich-Volker International Raceway in Bremen was halted by the discovery of an unearthed castle deep under the ground, and was found to have extended into Blockland district across the farmlands there. To add to this discovery, a mysterious earthquake shook the region towards the closing stages of the pandemic in late 2022, the confirmation of Castle "Mondstadt-Bremen" or in its traditional name, Keldesburgen made it even more mysterious to German motorsports enthusiasts. ESPLAR's official adventurers guild has launched an investigation into the Keldesburgen, with the Scandinavian, German, and Baltic branches leading the investigation. With many of ESPLAR's drivers associations that existed to promote their regional language and culture absorbed into the ESPLAR Adventurers Guild, it is sure that many of them will be taking more active roles than just driving for a world championship.

Balkans
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Poland
Although BNV20 hit Poland quite considerably, it did not affect it as badly as neighboring Germany and Belarus, the latter suffering a revolution and leading to a democratically-elected government after being previously ruled by one president since 2000.

Poland is among the leading countries in the fight against BNV20 in Europe, the others being Romania and Sapmi.

Romania
Although Romania had to contend with BNV20 early on, by the end of 2021 the country entered a new period of economic boom thanks to its plan to squash BNV20 from the country. It was also one of the first countries to receive the vaccine against it, which was first administered in Moldavia and its rural provinces.

Scandinavia
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Russia
The catastrophic collapse of the Soviet Union in 1984 taught the incoming Russian Federation an important lesson: never completely centralize the country. After uniting the country after 2 years of civil war (which cost Kira Eronthade's grandfather his life), the Russian Federation began to federalize in a similar style to the United States. To this end, Russia's existing oblasts and republics became very similar to American states.

Many border disputes between the new republics-turned states were quickly resolved. The northern Caucasus states in particular had terrible borders that had more to do with the ethnicity of these regions at the time the USSR collapsed, and simplified the borders as to prevent future administrative issues down the line; for example the new Adygea received Sochi in exchange for areas south of Krasnodar and connected the state to Karachay-Cherkessia. Tatarstan ceded areas north of Bayteryakovo and the Kama River to Udmurtia, and the previous Altai Krai was merged into Altai proper, with capital at Gorno-Altaysk (now Ulalu).

Turkey
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Caucasus Mountains
Once a hotbed of ethnic conflicts in the past, the entire Caucasus Mountains are entering an unprecedented period of peace bolstered by the formation of the Greater Caucasus Defense Alliance (GCDA) between Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Persia. While Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the autonomous republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and the Russian Republics of Dagestan, Adygea, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, Chechnya and Ingushetia are the primary members, Russia, Turkey and Persia act as observer members to ensure peace and prosperity to the region.

The GCDA was formed as part of a mutual defense agreement between Azerbaijan and Armenia following chaotic protests against the totalitarian regime in Azerbaijan in the late 2000s that caused Enar Selnimarov to return to Altruras, and led to new democratic reforms in Azerbaijan in 2012. Armenia and Azerbaijan, despite an uneasy peace, maintained their rivalry in the ESPLAR Elite Series until 2019.

Middle East
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Central Asia
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South Asia
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Siberia
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China
In the ESPLAR Universe, the Taiping Rebellion from 1850-1864 may have ended in failure, but in 1874 the Qing Dynasty came crashing down after another revolution, this time led by Republican elements who felt that the Qing Dynasty have lost the Mandate of Heaven and that it is up to the people of China to uphold the Mandate. The republican revolution first started in Guangzhou before spreading to the rest of the country.

China then began to rapidly industrialize similar to Japan's Meiji Restoration, but their internal matters led to the loss of northeast territories and were pushed to the boundaries of the Amur, Ergun and Ussuri Rivers.

In the 1910s the First Republic collapsed after political infighting erupted between different sides of the political spectrum. Events between this time and the end of WW2 mirrored real life.

After WW2, China was reunited into the Republic of China, with two major political parties vying for control: the Communist Party of China, and the Kuomintang. These two parties, often fierce rivals of each other, contested each and every election since then. The Communist Party of China won the first elections, and has remained in control of the Chinese Parliament since with majorities. However, since the protests in Hong Kong in 2018-19, the communists have begun to lose some control to the opposition, especially in Shanghai and the Pearl River Delta. In 2021, during the onset of the BNV20 pandemic, a progressive independent unseated a communist governor in Jiangmen, and elections in 2023 and general elections in 2024 may be a sign for what is to come, with a contentious election season soon to follow. Both the Communists and Kuomintang are fighting hard to maintain their base of support, especially with mainland China itself (sans Hong Kong) long being a communist stronghold.

China in 2023 is one of the world's major superpowers. One of the major companies from this area, Mihoyo, are one of the biggest and are contending to be one of ESPLAR's title sponsors, and are openly advocating for ESPLAR to come to China for 2023 or 2024 for the ESPLAR Elite Series. That is, as long as ESPLAR themselves don't question the government...

Southeast Asia
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Philippines
In the land of the Thousand Suns (a Philippine ESPLAR organization dedicated to promoting the country's exotic landscape for their fans), the Philippines has had a turbulent couple of years, as the country faced BNV20 with full force. Initially, it kept out BNV20 thanks to effective strategies and kept its cases low throughout 2021. However, the Philippines reopened too early, and combined with both the extremely contagious Sumatra variant of BNV20 and travel cases from Oceania, the Philippines had a rough 2022 in which almost 150,000 people died of BNV20, over half of these in the NCR alone. The Philippines was one of the first countries to receive the Keino-Wyuka (Japanese-Altruran developed) vaccine against BNV20XN008.

This year, the province of Batangas is on the spotlight as it will host the second special event of Class A in the ESPLAR Elite Series. It's also in danger of losing its spot to two possible contenders, Clark and Zamboanga, the latter being built for regional formulae racing on reclaimed land with eco-friendly landscape and facilities.

Oceania
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Korea
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Japan
While Japan has fared slightly better in handling BNV20 compared to other countries across the globe, its focus still remains deeply on the motorsports scene. The shock retirement of Naoto Kazami in Formula NX may have set back Saihara Motorsports' quest for racing immortality, but that is not stopping them from developing their racing program in all interested series. They remain Nissan's official team in IFRC, and with both Aoto Miyazami and Taniko Shimamura going to Formula NX for 2023, they took on Hayato Kitanami and Yoshihiro Ishikawa, the latter a Formula Supercar champion and the former the 2019 ESPLAR Elite Series champion (this move reunites the two teammates from 2019 as well).

As for Greater Kanto Motorsports, they decided to focus on two new potential superstars, Kazumi Furukawa and Natsumi Aoyagi, while not of Japanese nationality, are Japanese by heart. They took the 2021 ESPLAR scene by storm, and took over the 2022 EES championship after Saihara blew another chance at the title.

For 2023, Saihara are the biggest Japanese powerhouse team, but Greater Kanto remain poised to defend their hold on ESPLAR competition, even if they will continue to use their traditional tactics to get their way.

Pacific Islands
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