In the far-distant future, society has begun to rebuild with a new empire, the Celestial Empire of California, rising from the embers of an apocalypse. It has been centuries since the general collapse of society, but that period of history still very much holds a place in the imagination of people. One scholar, Erya Bingen, endeavors to make a work of literature about this time and the years afterward, to be the Narrator for centuries of history long forgotten. However, quite a lot has changed in six centuries and Bingen does not possess the most accurate understanding of history, not helped by less than reliable sources. The mod is the story she attempts to tell, the story of Zakariyya, of Tanner, of Elton, and of the West Coast in general.
Just After the End is a fanmade spinoff of its predecessor, specifically the Fanfork of After the End. With development on and off since 2019, the mod's alpha was finally released in 2022 with further updates in 2023 and is currently available through Steam Workshop
. It is currently still in development, and more bookmarks are planned beyond the current lone bookmark set in 2055.
In addition to tropes present in the base game, this mod provides examples of the following tropes:
- After the End: Of course. Even though Just After the End is set much closer to the End than its predecessor, the nature of the End is still left deliberately vague. This is due in part to the fact that the Narrator, who is crafting the story, is not aware of what the End was either.
- All Hail the Great God Mickey!: The entire concept of religions in Just After the End is somewhat muddled, as various things that could be more easily seen as lifestyles or cultural quirks rather than actual religions. Whether this is due the traumatic impact of the apocalypse or the Narrator misunderstanding her sources is up to the player.
- The Cowpokes, similar to the Trailwalkers of After the End, are heavily inspired by the popular perception of cowboys and the West, with gods such as Eastwood and Ghost Riders indicating their inspiration.
- The Fidelii are a warrior cult that quite literally worships the concept of Semper Fi. Though America does not exist anymore, Fidelii still fights for it and worships it with only a little more fervor than before the End.
- Fortunists give divine status to gambling and Lady Luck, with their centers of power being Las Vegas and other casino locations across the map.
- The Interstaters are a mix of a Cargo Cult and Mad Max raiders, mostly centered in the deserts of Nevada between Utah and California. They give great reverence to the Interstate, as the former lifeblood of their isolated communities and its creator, Eisenhower.
- Kinemites exemplify the worst aspects of Horrible Hollywood, stars who worship their own fame and pasts to their own detriment, even after the source of their fame has disappeared. Their bloody attack on Tomorrowland is what prompts Zakariyya's war against the warlords of Los Angeles in the first bookmark.
- Legislatives, located in Vancouver, give their complete loyalty to their state, the former provincial government of British Columbia now simply called The Ledge, and control perhaps the most intact piece of the Old World on the map. Their outlook is most easily seen from their evil gods which include Ottawa, the Yanks, and the French.
- Mine Cultists worship the wealth that their mines once brought to their communities, hoping it might return someday.
- Occidentalists is quite literally a LARP whose members who took their hobby way too seriously. They've taken the fall of society and the rise of feudalism with great gusto, believing that humanity has entered a new age of chivalry and heroes. The Society for Creative Anachronism was present as mercenary group in After the End Fanfork but did not have its own religion.
- The Olympians fetishize fitness and sport to religious levels, making their lives about being the biggest and the best with Nike, Hercules, and Bambino, being among their gods.
- The Siliconist religion, based in Silicon Valley and other tech centers across the West Coast, idolizes the Internet and mourns its passing due to the worldwide return to medieval levels of technology.
- Sovereignists, inspired by libertarians and the Sovereign Citizens, believe that they can literally bring god to court to gain heavenly rewards, similar to how actual Sovereign Citizens often try to exploit loopholes and pseudolaw against the state.
- Triangulo Dorado, centered in Sinaloa and scattered around other parts of Mexico, idolizes The Cartel and turns narco culture into a religion unto itself, one where might makes right and glory is all-consuming. Whether Triangulo Dorado are actual remnants of the cartels or just people who embrace their image is unclear, but certain characters in Sinaloa seem to indicate the former to be true for at least some of them.
- Alternate History: The point of divergence is not known exactly but something definitely went very wrong to knock society back to a medieval level by 2055.
- Americasia: Implicit in the Narrator's time and the Celestial Empire of California, but mostly not present in the first bookmark, as it is set long before the rise of that empire.
- Apocalypse Anarchy: Very much present in the 2055 bookmark with small fragmented realms and religions at war with one another throughout the map. Only Vancouver and Southern California seemed to have united by 2055, under the Legislatives and Zakariyya Abbas respectively.
- Apocalypse Cult: Most visibly present with the Millenarians, who believe that the Second Coming will occur in 2239. Amusingly enough, they exist in the same region as the Adventists, who have a past of failed end-times predictions themselves.
- Author Appeal: In-Universe, the mod's equivalent of base Crusader Kings 2's China or After the End's Brazil is the narrator of the Framing Device, who occasionally takes an interest in a certain culture or religion group, allowing characters in that group to petition the narrator to alter the story in their favour.
- Authority in Name Only: The Premier of The Ledge rules the largest realm on the map, but he is old and ailing in health with vassals preparing to revolt. Whether or not the Ledge survives in-game is up to chance, but it most certainly did not survive in-universe.
- Back from the Brink: As with After the End, many minorities and religions that were once small before the End have experienced a resurgence after it. This includes many Native American tribes, with the Hopi and O'odham having their own unified kingdoms at the game's start.
- Balkanize Me: The entire map is divided at the start, with the only notable remnant of the world before being The Ledge, most likely descended from the provincial government of British Columbia.
- Bomb-Throwing Anarchists: Portrayed differently by two religions who start with the “Anarchy” government:
- Played straight by the Black Crossers, straight-edge urban punks in the Pacific Northwest who are loosely connected to the later Gaians. Black Crossers are extremely violent, reveling in the death of “the Man” that the End has brought.
- Partially averted by the Freedomites, Christian anarchists in the vein of Leo Tolstoy and the real-life Doukhobors, of which the Freedomites are an offshoot. The Freedomites are not pacifists like their Doukhobor cousins, but they are not particularly violent either, unlike the Black Crossers.
- Cargo Cult: Many of the newer religions present are very obviously Cargo Cults, with the most obvious perhaps being the Interstaters, who literally worship roads for the prosperity they once brought, similar to how the original cargo cultists associated planes with godly assistance.
- Church of Happyology: The Church of Scientology rules the city center of Los Angeles at the start of the first bookmark, but they are actually a relatively insignificant part of the larger group of warlords in the area.
- Cowboy: Western cultures have access to cowboy retinues, most likely with horse archers rather than gunslingers. The Trailwalkers and Cowpokes give religious reverence to the cowboy, as a mythological figure. Some characters even wear stetsons.
- Divided States of America: Even in 2055, the United States is nowhere to be seen though many still obviously remember it in some form or another. The Tannerites and the Fidelii seek to restore America while the Romanohumanists seek to maintain modern values through their cults of reason and tolerance. Most of the map meanwhile seems to care less about America versus simple survival.
- Dirty Commies: Mentioned as an "evil god" of the Dominionists, the followers of Tanner Tannerite. Due to Tanner being a patriotic Christian fundamentalist, this comes as little surprise. The Sovereignists also regard communism as an evil god, an enemy of their obviously more libertarian origins.
- Eagleland: Presented broadly with the Dominionists and the Fidelii, as their reverence for America is very much religious in nature, though more explicitly with the Fidelii than the Dominionists (who are still Christians).
- Early-Bird Cameo: In-universe. The Fidelii, Dominionists, and Old Regime represent early incarnations of the Americanist creed seen in Fan Fork in their reverence and patriotism towards a fallen America.
- The Empire: The Ledge and Socal are the two largest realms in the first bookmark, though Tanner Tannerite usually forms the Dominionate soon after the game's start. Although they are all powerful realms, the chaos of the apocalypse is very much present, and they are still little more than regional powers compared to the future splendor of the Celestial Empire of California.
- Fan Prequel: Just After the End qualifies as one, though it shares some devs with After the End Fanfork and uses some underlying code from the original mod.
- Fantastic Catholicism: As contact has been lost with Rome, many forms of Catholicism have arisen to replace the vacuum left by this.
- La Hermandad, an agrarian faith inspired by the UFW and other Catholic worker movements.
- Latinate, a Strawman of overly traditional Catholics who literally believe that Latin is a magic language and the return of the “true” Pope will herald the Second Coming.
- Misionals, a decentralized faith mostly based around the broad experience of Catholics in the American Southwest and northern Mexico.
- Penitentes, a faith based on a real life society in New Mexico where recreating the Crucifixion is considered among the highest forms of piety.
- Fantasy Americana: While the game's set squarely in a post-apocalyptic America, a number of event chains are inspired by various bits of regional folk tales in keeping with the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane theme of the original game.
- Feudal Future: As in the base game, the game mechanics are based on a simplified version of feudalism. However, due to being so soon after the End, there are notable exceptions where feudalism has not taken hold yet such as in urban centers where the government is "Old Regime".
- The Fundamentalist: Tanner Tannerite, the Apostle of the Tannerite Dominionate, is a Christian fundamentalist who wants to restore America by any means necessary, no matter the cost. To be specific, he wants America to be recreated as a Christian nation, governed by Biblical law with him as its ruler naturally.
- Future Imperfect: This is baked into the whole structure of the game, as the Narrator has some fundamental misunderstandings about the past, perhaps the most notable being her inclusion of the Kesh or Keshians as a real historical group.
- Higher Understanding Through Drugs: Many religious use drugs or controlled substances for vision quests and rituals, most notably the Peyotists.
- Hordes from the East: There are hordes on the eastern corner of the map but they are not roving Mongols, they're cowboys in Wyoming.
- Human Sacrifice: Most averted though implied with the dark rituals of the Bohemians.
- The reformation system adapted from the Holy Fury expansion for the vanilla game allows pagans and reformable Native American religions to do this with the "Bloodthirsty Gods" doctrine.
- I Know Madden Kombat: The remnants of various sports teams evolved into actual mercenary bands, most often Olympians due to their love of sport. Military helmets also incorporate face masks obviously derived from the helmets of American football teams.
- Injun Country: Available across the map though most notable in Navajoland, an area as large as the average state dominated by the Navajo. It isn't united at the start, but it is still solidly native, both with regards to the culture and their devotion to the native Navajo religion.
- Interfaith Smoothie: Available in several flavors:
- Ceticism is the religion of the Celestial Empire of California, the home of the Narrator, but is not present at the first bookmark. It combines a mix of "gurus" including Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Carl Sagan, and L. Ron Hubbard and a religious devotion to the Celestial Emperor.
- Kojtumbrem is based on the real life beliefs of the Yaqui people, who combine their own native beliefs with Christianity in interesting ways, where their traditional deer dance takes place on occasions such as Lent and Easter.
- Theosophy is present on the map both in California and in Montana, which represents the continued presence of remnants of the Church Universal and Triumphant. The religion has a long history, classified as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism, it draws upon both older European philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Asian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
- Three Paths is the fusion of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, meant to represent the beliefs of mainly Chinese communities.
- Mormonism: Utah is right in the middle of the map, and Mormonism is naturally also present. During the first bookmark, the Church of Latter-Day Saints, the main Mormon faith, has schismed between those loyal the church's more theodemocratic vision, known as Presidials, and those who prefer more independence, known as Jack Mormons. Mormon polygamists are also present in pockets across the map, but they are the vast minority, as they are in real life. Newer variants of Mormonism such as the mystical Ensignites and the homosexual-centered Quadrines are also present as heresies.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Tanner is unique in being represented with the old Western portrait regardless of portrait packs enabled. This is specifically to preserve his characteristic chin.
- Public Execution: Upon winning the war with Spokane that starts when the first bookmark begins, Tanner Tannerite will impale the King of Spokane and his family in a public execution as a show of force to his enemies.
- Ragnarök Proofing: Mostly averted; though more artifacts such as guns are present in 2055 than 2666 due to the reduced time between then and the End.
- The Remnant: The Ledge is the prominent example of this, though the Fidelii also likely qualify as the remnants of the United States military still fighting for America, at least in name.
- Ruins of the Modern Age: Present to a greater or lesser degree in different areas. Some cities seem to be nothing but burned-out husks of their pre-Event selves, while other areas are relatively intact.
- Shrouded in Myth: This is generally the fate of any pre-Event person or group that gets directly referenced. Though some references are more direct than others, no one can be sure if the Narrator is accurate in her research or not.
- South of the Border: Northeastern Mexico is just as fragmented as the rest of the West Coast, with narcos, natives, Mormons, and regular Catholic Mexicans all vying for a place at the top.
- Unreliable Narrator: The Framing Device of the mod is that its a story told by an Imperial Historian to the Celestial Emperor of California during the events of After the End: A Post-Apocalyptic America. Its strongly implied that certain "religions" like the Legislatives and Fidelii actually represent remnants of secular pre-Event governments, and Tanner Tannerite's legendary chariot, pulled by "one hundred and fifty horses", is pretty clearly just a car.
- Unspecified Apocalypse: The nature of The Event is deliberately left vague and up to the player's interpretation, as in After the End.
- Vision Quest: Some religions allow vision quests as a rite of passage. You can get various bonuses or penalties depending on what your character sees, and how you interpret the visions.
- The Wild West: The Trailwalker and Cowpoke religions are both devoted to the mythos of the Wild West and cowboys.
