California Incident

On April 29th, 2038, the demons Alcor the Dreambender and Milchiresa of Unknown Darkness were summoned by their respective cults and ordered to fight to the death. The ensuing battle, referred to as the California Incident or the California Apocalypse, resulted in mass destruction to the surrounding areas and an estimated 124 million casualties, including Milchiresa. The state of California was hit the hardest, with most of the coastline destroyed and split into islands. This event had significant international consequences, precipitated widespread anti-demon sentiments, and is one of the reasons Alcor is so feared.

Immediate Response

Supernatural Aid and the Red Cross assisted Californian residents directly after the event with donations of food, clothing, clean water, and temporary shelter. The closest and most accessible islands received help, and the farther islands were deemed unsafe and not breached. Financial, housing, and employment aid was given to those who were in the affected area at the time of the incident as well as residents who were away from home.

Some citizens made it back to the US mainland, where they were granted financial leniency on housing, hotel stays, and job opportunities. Other groups remained on the islands, and eventually formed the Californian Island Federation.

Impact

Many foreign celebrities, businessmen, tourists, and diplomats were killed in the disaster. Because of California's position as a hub of international travel and multi-cultural communities, April 29th was a globally observed day of remembrance. A memorial is built in a surviving California city.

In response to the demons themselves, international governments attempted to make contact with both of them. Milchiresa's summons went unanswered, and Alcor refused to appear but made his presence known by ripping apart their binding circles within seconds and destroying the surrounding area. Many governments blacklisted information on both, hoping to prevent more summonings, despite the evidence pointing to Milchiresa being destroyed.

The islands left over from the disaster were declared a non-state by the USA, and the remaining coastline was redefined as the border for New California. East Asian countries interested in new territory, New Zealand, and Australia attempted make contact with the islands but failed due to the magically-concentrated waters.

Hawaii and costal East Asian countries experienced tsunamis as a result of the major tectonic plate movements in California.

Decades later, LA, San Francisco, and the surrounding areas became a hot spot for thrill-seekers. People went diving in the wreckage to bring back artifacts or just see the ruins. Some of the artifacts brought back were completely mundane objects, but others were found to be infused with leftover magic. Some of them were even dangerous; objects with holes in them tended to allow viewers to see the Mindscape, or see auras that they wouldn't otherwise be able to see.  

Geography

The geography resulting from the fight was widely varied. Floating islands, debris islands, and underwater cities became a part of the area. Underwater cities are not inhabited by humans and sometimes not inhabited at all (due to the lingering negative emotions of the deceased), but are home to both mundane and magical plants and animals. Over time, many islands worked together to create a system of levees to increase accessible land.

The waters around the California area were infused with magic and demonic energy for generations. The magic concentration lead to some areas with strange weather, gravitational anomalies like those seen in Gravity Falls, and warped laws of physics.

Culture

+As reported by asianpankake​, California is huge and insanely diverse, so the culture of each island is going to differ a great deal from the others.

+Culture is, after all, dependent on people and their traditional values, their upbringing, and people of different nationalities are going to have different upbringings. Some islands may have mixed-cultures(where you take traditions of different cultures and celebrate them all), some may have cultures very similar to the US’s or Mexico’s (especially the islands close to the coast), etc.

+Also to be taken into consideration is the cultures of supernatural beings, also stranded on these islands. Selkies, Dryads, Satyrs, Crab People, Gnomes, etc. Some islands will get along with these beings better than others, and that will also influence/be influenced by the underlying political thoughts of the majority of the people on that particular island. 

+Each island does have its own name, as they are wont to do, but I’m going to refer to them as the California islands.

+Also possibly scavenger/pirate culture for the moving islands/boats? More should be said about this. 

Politics

+Political views change from island to island, but many closer to the new coastline are pro-nats (the fact that a demon caused all this destruction is kind of a supporting argument they use), whereas those further away tend to be more liberal. 

+Remember that the islands get smaller as you get further from the coast: As asianpankake​ said, “The Bay Area is probably the most wrecked, and a huge percentage of the liberal, supernatural-friendly population is lost.” 

+Because of the highly diverse and disparate communities, the residents might have friendly relations and trade between islands, but it’s unlikely that they’re never really unified. They might eventually enter an agreement like the European Union, but that’s a pretty heavy might that depends on the situations this new region finds itself in. 

+The tentative name for this possible governmental body is ‘Californian Island Federation.’

Magic

+Magic, due to an early lack of electricity/oil/fuel/coal/other-energy, quickly becomes the preferred energy of choice. You can create lights with it, you can heat things, you can cool things. You can use it to tie your makeshift house-tent together (though you’ll need to find a more permanent solution before long), you can use it to find food and drinking water, etc. 

+Because it’s used so often, magic quickly becomes a desired skill, and a skill that is practiced to extents not before reached in the Post-Transcendence age. 

+Basically magic becomes the export skill/trade/etc of most of the islands in the California region. 

+ theorykids​ suggested that a few generations after the disaster is when the islands become really well known for their magic: sales of magical supplies, charms, and talismans reaches an all-time high, their universities are the best to go to for magic degrees and especially for magic-education degrees, their constant improvement of the MagiOrb and related magitech (see Technology) is a selling point, etc.

+It’s mentioned in the TAU blog that one of Acacia’s kids is the guy who really, really manages to meld tech and magic together: headcanon that he went to undergrad or grad school at one of the Universities in the California region. 

+While you have a lot of pro-nats on these islands, these pro-nats sure change their mind about using magic pretty quickly. And again, some will take to magic with less prodding than others; not every pro-nat person is going to have the exact same beliefs.

+Same goes with anti-magic societies: while they run rampant all over the continental US, the anti-magic societies of the islands of California don’t do too well. They kind of fizzle out and die, and Magic Cults/Societies take their places with a vengeance.

+One of these societies, the Reclaimant Circle, emerges as the (social-not-magic) societies on the islands start to come together and discuss the issue of land. They’re dedicated to raising as much land as they can, and can only really move maybe a couple square feet at a time; raising the earth takes a lot of energy, and this probably in the beginning causes minor earthquakes itself. 

+These earthquakes, while they might be devastating in the early years, also release a ton of easily manipulated elemental magic, and it’s why the Reclaimant Circle still exists centuries later; because no matter what, there’ll be something good coming out of shifting the earth

Flora/Fauna

+Crab People populate the islands, some (debris islands?) more than others. 

+Coral Reefs and the like slowly start to grow, especially as these waters have a radical range of elevation within the same ten square miles. 

Appearances

• April 29, 2038
• April 29, 2038: Oxygen