Gerosha

Gerosha is the town of central focus to The Gerosha Chronicles in Dozerfleet Comics. It is the setting of The Battle for Gerosha, a story which much of Gerosha history centers around. Its forest outskirts are the birthplaces of Stan and Shalia Flippo; the parents of Ciem and Sniperbadger and grandparents to Dana McArthur, John McArthur, Frank McArthur, Marie McLaine, Trina McLaine, Larry McLaine, Lex Philippine, Andy Baret, Kirby Flippo, and a few other heroes (depending on version.)

It was at one point one of a few hometowns to Imaki Izuki, a mentor to both Ciem and Mukade (and in one version, also Jackrabbit.)

In-universe, the town is named after the Gerosha Stone, a top half to a seashell that once belonged to a French scallop that was eaten by several oyster drills and a lightning whelk. The whelk carved a letter "G" in one side of that seashell. The seashell used to be part of a trillion-dollar-value treasure owned by a pirate named Henry Lohtz. The town is also the namesake of the Sodality of Gerosha, a superhero league with a few of its members having originated from Gerosha or nearby towns.

Gerosha, first created in The Sims 2, has grown from a simple in-game map to a literary and comic multiverse that has far surpassed its Sims fanfic origins.

Relative location
It is generally agreed-upon that Gerosha is located at or around the same area as real-life Boonville, Indiana. Its geography is considered to be like that of its real-life counterpart, unless otherwise noted. To substantiate this, several landmarks of real-life Boonville were photographed along with landmarks of nearby Evansville in late July of 2019, in a session dubbed "Ciem: Inferno: The Grand Tour" - which recorded landmarks for Ciem: Inferno as well as for The Battle for Gerosha, Of Emeralds and Sapphires, Ciem: Caldera, Sodality: Instigation, The Gerosha Chronicles: Centipede + 49, and Ciem Tomorrow. This tour would later inspire a similar tour trip of Sault Ste. Marie for Anarteq: Guardian of the Soo.

History
See also: Timeline of events in Cataclysmic Gerosha

Note: Gerosha's exact definition has changed numerous times throughout the series' development. For purposes of this section, only its Cataclysmic Gerosha history will be documented.

Early in-universe history
Gerosha began its life in 1818 as Boonville. Life was peaceful in Boonville for the most part for quite some time. Lincoln was once in Boonville practicing law. In the early 20th century, Evansville native Alexis Hood settled down in a cabin outside of Boonville to live out the rest of her days following the assassination of her husband, Sadasheeva Cherupara, by Thuggees in India. She was pregnant at the time she moved back, and gave birth to a daughter named Marissa. The mother-daughter team lived peacefully in the woods for quite some time, never making much of a stir or fuss around town. Most of the townsfolk were sympathetic towards Alexis over the loss of her husband; though others were curious as to why she married an Indian.

Alexis eventually died of cancer, leaving Marissa to take over the cottage home. Marissa lived pretty much the same way as her mother did, but noticed trouble brewing in the culture and wanted to play more of a hand in combating it. The town would later become of interest to Tobey Flippo, who sought to move there from Evansville after WWII. He did so in 1956, after he and his new wife Alison had a child they named Stan. It was not long afterward that Marissa's cabin home came under attack from an escaped criminal known as Dwayne Lloyd. He broke in and raped Marissa brutally, but the cops intervened and - after a long and violent struggle - managed to once again apprehend Dwayne. Marissa survived her injuries, eventually giving birth to a daughter named Shalia.

Shalia may have inherited her mother's virtues, genes, and love for life. But she inherited her father's fighting spirit. Tobey and Marissa amazingly went years without discovering each other. They did in 1972, two years after Alison died and left Stan without a mother. They met at random in a grocery store, but didn't realize the significance of that meeting. However, 1972 was also the year that Tobey died of a heart attack while at home. This left Stan as an orphan taking care of himself and using his ingenuity to survive alone. He developed three goals for his life: get married, become a baseball player like his biological father, and discover the lost treasure of the pirate Henry Lohtz - who gave the secrets to its location to one of Tobey's ancestors. Stan was homeschooled his entire life, unlike Shalia - who was only homeschooled for the earlier parts of her education.

Little did Stan know it, but he himself was already a father. His DNA was extracted while he was a baby, and was used by the Phaelites to experiment with cloning. They had to make due with a half-clone when their initial full clone experiment failed. His DNA was mixed with that of a volunteer lab scientist named Insila Murtillo, who then became the mother of Stan's technical firstborn son Ploribus Murtillo. Ploribus would grow up to join the National Guard and later a Phaelite-US military liaison organization called SCALLOP, where he'd become the director. He changed his name to "Darius Philippine," so as to protect his birth parents' identities.

Battle for Gerosha timeline
In 1973 Stan met Shalia in the woods. The two fell in love in short order. However, their courtship came to an end when Marissa died of a stroke in 1974. Stan and Shalia decided to get married, even though it was frowned upon at the time. They set out to find Henry Lohtz's treasure, and succeeded. It included the Gerosha Stone, which Stan began to fancy as much as Lohtz did before him. They returned to Boonville with their fortune, and began making a living for themselves. Stan finally lived up to his dream of becoming a baseball player. Shalia gave birth to Reily in 1975. The family spent many years in Boonville happy and successful, though they dreamed of building a house that would come to be known as the Triangulum. In 1976, the Wyers gave birth to their frail daughter Erin. Shalia had a young friend named Trina Domingo, who helped her get into local-area politics.

In 1989, when Reily was 13 years old, the Hebbleskin Gang abducted him to get revenge on Shalia having frustrated their political agenda for the area. He was soon rescued by Darius. However, the Hebbleskins created a dome around the town. Stan and Shalia were made fugitives of "Netheel Boonville." Sgt. Luddin and Fantisk Hebbleskin establish their diamond-fisted control over their occupied city-state. In 1990, Stan and Shalia are reunited after spending time as fugitives. Luddin and Fantisk's shared obsession with weeding out opposition has ruined much of the town. The Wyer family is declared enemies of the state, and hunted down. Only Erin survives, rescued by Darius. Mitch Brandel heads in as an operative to take out key establishments of the Hebbleskins and prevent them from further keeping Gerosha isolated from the outside world. His efforts are successful enough that he builds a sufficient resistance within the city. He also disables the dome long enough for the National Guard to conduct an air strike.

Thousands of Meethlites are killed in the air strike, including Luddin. Fantisk is killed in battle against Mitch, in what becomes known as "the Battle for Gerosha." Boonville is renamed Gerosha officially, to celebrate the triumph of Stan and Shalia's legacy over that of the Hebbleskin Gang. It becomes the home town of the Gerosha Stone. That same scallop shell later becomes the reason for "SCALLOP" to have its name, when Stan suggests it to them. It is later backronymed into "Security-Centric Alliance Lending and Learning Of Phaelites." In keeping with this scheme, SCALLOP would later build the Chen as one of its mobile bases of operation. Another major landmark to Gerosha - the Triangulum, was built finally between 1992 and 1994.

Among the many men that Stan and Shalia befriend during the siege was Imaki Izuki. He informs Stan about the latter's having been subject to another Phaelite test. This second one assures the likelihood that one of Stan's children will be a Centhuen Prototype. He promises to be the godfather of that child if that should happen. After meeting Erin, Shalia decides she should be adopted. Stan likes the idea of it, and Erin becomes a Flippo. Reily eventually meets and marries Ashlee Kornsdall. The two are married, and have a child named Kirby in 1999. Shalia gives birth two a set of triplets in 1999: Candi, Miriam, and Marina. Candi is revealed to have latent Centhuen Prototype abilities, so Imaki becomes her godfather.

Early Flippo triplets' lives timeline
The Flippos enjoy a few more years of peace and prosperity in the town they helped establish. However, it all comes crashing down when Stan and Shalia are run off the road in a Hebbleskin-orchestrated assassination. The young witness in the offending vehicle - Gunner Soorfelt - makes a clean getaway. His older supervisors, however, are captured and executed. Stan and Shalia's deaths ensured that life was never the same. Hebbleskin sympathy and politics began to creep into Gerosha culture; and Washington politics did the town no favors either. The culture became coarser and less civil by the month. The now-orphaned Flippo triplets find themselves left without parents. Reily seizes the Triangulum for himself and his family. He reneges on his promise to care for his younger siblings, leading to disputes about who will care for them until they are old enough to claim their own share of the inheritance and move on with their lives. Erin gets full custody of Miriam and Marina, while deciding to share custody of Candi with Imaki.

Five years of very minor adventure go by, before the girls' lives are changed forever. Miriam develops her online "Hacktress Extraordinaire" persona of "Sniperbadger." Marina and Candi are both sexually assaulted by classmates. However, they are advised not to report the assault, lest they invite media attention that could draw the Hebbleskin Gang in. In Candi's case, she's assaulted by Don "the Psycho" Mendoza, her ex-boyfriend in 6th grade. It is during the attack that her powers fully manifest, allowing her to fight back. She later uses them to help Marina get revenge on the boy that raped her. Imaki realizes that something is off, and decides to enhance Candi's training to set her on the path to be a genuine hero.

The town is put on high alert after 2012, however, when the Great Marlquaan Storm leads to new Marlquaanites appearing all over the world. Some, like a rising star in the court system named Judge Terry Beliah, have friends in high and low places that would love to capture and study these Marlquaanites - along with there being others who believe Marlquaanites are too dangerous to walk amongst normal man. Rumors of the especially violent Extirpon also grip Gerosha with fear.

The Centipede and Fire Saga
See also: Candi McArthur (Cataclysmic Gerosha), Miriam Flippo (Cataclysmic Gerosha), Marina Baret (Cataclysmic Gerosha), Ciem: Inferno, Ciem / Anarteq: Kahoopiliana, Ciem: Ash Cloud, Ciem: Caldera

Sodality timeline
See also: Sodality (series) As things get worse under the Obama regime, the country begins to fall apart. The Hebbleskin Gang takes over a portion of the nation, and Duke Arfaas dubs that section "Netheel." They aid and abet the Muslim Brotherhood in toppling the main United States, causing its still-free fractures in the south and soutwest to band together and become "Toklisana." The West Coast is invaded by China, leading to "Chimerica" existing as a Chinese colony. The remainder becomes known as "Ameristan." Halal Affadidah becomes a sort of sultan in his own right over Ameristan, and quickly sets to work on his plans of ethnic cleansing. Reily and his family are swiftly killed off. This is after the Triangulum has been sold to the city - as Reily was planning to continue exploring the world with his family. The regime quickly sets up the Triangulum as their base, electing to keep it intact as beautiful as it once was. However, they decimate nearly all of Gerosha around it. Gunner Soorfelt teams up with his brother Skellig to hunt down the Flippo triplets. They manage to murder Erin instead, even as Erin is struggling with mental health breakdown. Marina is kicked out of the house for getting pregnant, and she marries Matthew Baret. The Barets and their son Andy flee Ameristan while they still can. Matt sets up shop where he can, re-creating Baret Auto Sales. Marina becomes the lead singer of an indie band dubbed "Turkeybreath Skyline."

Things go far worse for the others. Not wishing to live under Imaki and not feeling that life in Erin's house is an option, Miriam runs away with the Couric family. She and Phil plot to get married once they are safely away from the regime out to kill them. However, "the Wall" gets erected to regulate traffic. The Hebbleskins ensure that the single best way for anyone to reach freedom in either Chimerica or Toklisana is through a small set of passes in Netheel - which they make near-impossible to reach. The Ameristani regime works triple overtime to punish any who would dare try to escape the gradual ethnic cleansing slaughter that would await anyway. Phil's parents are eventually shot dead, so Miriam and Phil travel to Chicago together. They soon travel to the Wall and hack it, long enough to both get through. However, the Hebbleskins are waiting for them on the other end. They manage to run Phil and Miriam off the road just as they did Stan and Shalia. However, Miriam's sense of preparedness allows her to survive the crash. Phil is not so fortunate. Miriam escapes on foot into Chimerica, where she eventually negotiates her way to Hawaii and collects her inheritance. She the assumes the alias of "Haishui," and hides out in Hong Kong pretending as best she can to be one of the locals in what amounted to a self-imposed "witness protection program."

This leaves Candi, Donte, and Imaki trapped in Gerosha's rubble and remains, gathering together as many Exodus Agenda members as they can. Most chiefly, they look for anyone with hacking skills comparable to Miriam's who might still be alive; so that losing her doesn't mean they lose their chance at freedom. Amidst Affadidah's relentless efforts to purge Gerosha of its native inhabitants, he turns the entire town - save for the Triangulum - as a desolate heap of defiled memories and destroyed infrastructure. When the Exodus Agenda finally makes its move and abandons Gerosha, it is left its state of death and decay, for the regime to do as it pleases with it.

Centipede + 49 and aftermath
See also: Centipede + 49

According to this timeline, Candi and 49 enhanced soldiers wage one of the most intense battles of their entire campaign, all to retake Gerosha's remains from what's left of the deteriorating post-Affadidah regime. Victory means that SCALLOP and other entities can move in and secure Gerosha for the rebuilding of America in the 2050s. Candi chooses to continue living in Texas with Donte. However, her daughter Dana and son-in-law Devin Spanz move to Gerosha to live in a Triangulum restored to private residential purpose. Andy Baret, the son of Matt and Marina Baret, also returns to Gerosha to help keep it safe during its reconstruction. Miriam's three children move to Evansville for that town's reconstruction, and perform shows to help raise money and awareness for Americans returning to their homes that Evansville and Gerosha need to be rebuilt. Frank and John head to Evansville also. Lex eventually steps down from his role as director of SCALLOP, giving him time to organize a team unit with Dana, Devin, and Andy. They seek to monitor Phaletori activity in the Gerosha area, in case they should ever return. The city's fate beyond the 2050s remains unknown in the Cataclysmic Gerosha timeline; but it's assumed the city returns to its former glory until Judgment Day.

Notable inhabitants
The following individuals notably lived in Gerosha at one point in time. For simplicity's sake, only characters from Cataclysmic Gerosha onward are considered, as prior versions are no longer canon to anything.

Highways

 * Highway 62
 * The area near Squaw Creek Road
 * Highway 61

Locust St. Long John Silver's

 * The area behind

1344 Lovers Ln.
Imaki, no poor individual himself, worked closely with SCALLOP even before they had that name. He also set up several basement bases across Gerosha to serve as operation shelters in the event of another Hebbleskin takeover. His bunkers proved more useful in helping the Exodus Agenda establish underground bases to hide from the Ameristani regime until they could organize their exodus.

Entrances had to be well-hidden and well-guarded, in case regime forces should find a way in. Not only were these bases used to establish communications, but also to issue orders to ground troops when looking for individuals who'd been scattered or were missing due to the regime's ethnic cleansing campaigns.

The goal was to rescue as many as possible before they were rounded up and sent to the regime's mass execution camps. While his relationship with SCALLOP was strained due to the particulars of Candi's arrest, it was eased when she agreed to take the fall for him and serve time at the Madison Juvenile Correctional Facility.

247 State Route 261
The Triangulum was built from 1992-1994 here. This futuristic, triangular house became home to Stan and Shalia. It later became Reily and Ashlee's home after Stan and Shalia are assassinated. It was eventually sold to the city of Gerosha as a museum, then later served as a regional headquarters for a figurehead of the Ameristani regime. After the regime was ousted in the 2050s, it eventually became a private residence again. Devin Spanz and his new wife Dana Spanz work to restore it to its original glory.

For information on the house that exists here in real life, check out its profile here.

Motel Manor

 * Room 7, where Roger and Danny stayed

435 S. 3rd St.

 * Quality Liquor store in real life

Chuckles Gas Station

 * Of 1st and Main

1205 N. 1st St.
Main article: Erin's house

Where Erin Flippo returns home from college and lives, working menial part-time jobs and taking care of her younger sisters. In spite her wealth and theirs, she often pretends to live as middle class or lower. Her constant physical and mental health issues, however, lead to her requiring a lot of hospitalization.

She is often away after the girls turn 13, leading to them either spending time with Imaki or else "raising themselves" without her. This is what allows the girls the free time to develop their identities: Candi the superhero, Miriam the hacker, and Marina the rock star.

A re-creation of the house for The Sims 4 is available here.

City Lake No. 1 Park

 * The building near 322 Moore St.

Sav-U-Mor IGA

 * Where Roger Loffin works in-universe

302 3rd St.

 * Couric family home

Gerosha Middle School
This school is located in the same basic area as real-life Boonville Middle School. The Flippo triplets attended here from grades 6-8. Loge Elementary School was where they attended K-5. It was in the shower stalls for the girls' room of Gerosha Middle where Candi was assaulted by Don the Psycho, and where Fred went after Marina&amp;dagger;.

&amp;dagger; Coincidentally, there was one reported rape in real-life Boonville in 2011. The Flippo girls' wishes to report the sex assaults done to them were vetoed by family and the city at large, for fear of drawing the attention of Hebbleskin operatives. However, there were no murders reported in 2006 in real life; which conflicts with Gerosha history in which Stan and Shalia are assassinated. Other crimes for 2011, according to City-Data.com, included 68 assaults, 16 burglaries, 121 thefts, 11 auto thefts, and 2 arsons.

Gerosha High School
Where the Flippo triplets attended high school. This was where Candi was attending on the fateful autumn when she went to a convention with Imaki - and it came under attack by the Ameristani regime and Hebbleskins. She met Donte, even saving his life from one of the attackers. The two began a relationship not long afterward. It was the football fields near this school that Candi and Donte first made their relationship official. This was also the school at which Miriam met and began her relationship with Phil Couric, and where Marina met Matt.

Wyer family home
The original home of Geoffrey and Patricia Wyer, Erin's birth parents.

Hood Cabin
The location of the cabin where Alexis and Marissa Hood lived their lives almost identically to one another, except Marissa vowed that she'd find Shalia a suitable husband so as to live her life differently. Shalia was born and raised in this cabin as well, as "Shalia Hood." The cabin's original location became a historic landmark when Boonville was replaced with Gerosha following the Battle for Gerosha.

Gerosha Cemetery
Main article: Gerosha Cemetery

A new cemetery that was established after the great battle to oust the Hebbleskin Gang, after most of Boonville had been destroyed. It's located in the same general place as real-life Maple Grove Cemetery, but is much more open to the public than real-life Maple Grove is.

Steve McNolan's remains were relocated to here. Also buried here are Alexis and Marissa Hood. A special locale representing Hell was established for Dwayne Lloyd's grave, as well as the graves of Sgt. Luddin and Fantisk Hebbleskin.

After their assassinations, Stan and Shalia Flippo are also buried here. The cemetery goes unmaintained and unused for decades after the Ameristani regime takes over the northeastern United States in 2018. In the 2050s, the cemetery is restored. A special mausoleum is set up to house the graves of Flippo family patriarchs and matriarchs. Honorary tombs are set up for Reily, Ashlee, and Kirby Flippo, as well as one for Erin and another for Imaki.

Breckenridge Park
Formerly the Flippo triplets' favorite childhood place to go on weekends and hang out, the park and others like it are torn apart by the regime and its vegetation is destroyed. Where playground equipment once stood, the regime erects a guillotine.

Inspiration
When the town was first given a name, it was considered that "Gerosha" would be a good name for an "any town." In the 1992 X-Men animated series, there was an island defined as "Genosha," based on the one originally written about by Chris Claremont at Marvel. The Dozerfleet founder spent a few years of his early life living in real-life Kenosha. Words like "germ," "geriatric," and "Gerswhin" went through the Dozerfleet founder's mind in May of 2005 as well, when thinking of names for the city that Stan and Shalia founded. A name for the city was deemed necessary, as Stan and Shalia's adventures were starting to be defined but lacked a setting. Earth-G2 established the basic characters, but did not define which city or state the events happened in. Based on some brief images of scenery in Indiana, the Dozerfleet founder decided that the geography of BrineyFjord.sc4 right before the bridge and fjord part on its western(?) edge resembled Indiana most. Southern Indiana was therefore determined to be the "magical place" that the BrineyFjord.sc4 file represented.

While Gerosha Prime and Despair Gerosha (the latter a failed attempt to rewrite the former) used the term "Gerosha" rather arbitrarily to define Stan and Shalia's home town, Classic Gerosha saw its continuity retooled in 2008 to adapt a seashell into the plot. This is because the real-life Gerosha Stone was discovered by the Dozerfleet founder in early January of 2008. It was worked into the plot that Stan Flippo found the stone, and named a new city after it when that new city was built atop the remains of its predecessor. The predecessor was defined in Comprehensive Gerosha in 2010 as being Booneville. Also in 2010, the continuity was revised so that the seashell was arbitrarily named "Gerosha" by a pirate named Henry Lohtz. Stan became the second to find it in-universe. Wealth of a Seashell as a story was then proposed as a way to explain the life of Lohtz, source of Stan's wealth and treasure via Lohtz, and bring some context to all the retcons.

Previous versions
The closest equivalent of a Gerosha town in franchise history dates back to Proto Gerosha, which was initially a town by a very different name in The Sims Deluxe. The idea to call it "Gerosha" didn't officially come about until around early May of 2005. Test Gerosha was a primitive attempt to make younger versions of Stan and Shalia Flippo, to tell their origin stories of before they married as well as cover their married life by giving it a plot. The Battle for Gerosha was first made a webcomic in the remainder of May of 2005, ending its production around the first week of June that same year. Like with many stories of that time, exact history and geography were deemed flexible. Gerosha Prime utilized the Briney Fjord default town file in The Sims 2 as a stand-in for southern Indiana geography, though the map's smaller piece across the bridge was seldom used. Despair Gerosha likewise used that map in order to attempt a reboot of Gerosha Prime. Both versions essentially has Craterville as the town's predecessor.

Classic Gerosha was the first time that it was established that Gerosha used to be known as Boonville. However, the map used for Classic Gerosha barely resembled real-life Boonville at all. Comprehensive Gerosha sought to fix that, establishing for the first time a concept art scheme that sought to use real-life geography to guide its presentation. This carried over into Cataclysmic Gerosha, with exception of the fact that much of the scenery was to be shown as having been demolished.

Pre-Cataclysmic Gerosha versions usually depict the town as carrying on like not much is happening from 1990-onward. However, the town grows to be an increasingly hostile place to live as American culture grows coarser due to out-of-control liberalism. In the 2050s, the Phaletori take it over. It is up to Dana and her cousins to set things right in the timeline of Ciem Tomorrow. In Cataclysmic Gerosha, Centipede + 49 has an ending which leaves open-ended the possibility for a similar plot to happen.

Design
Gerosha as a town was initially generated using the same map that was used for Craterville: the Briney Fjord map that came with The Sims 2. This pattern remained consistent even with Despair Gerosha Ciem. For the Classic Gerosha version, it is likely that Crystal Springs was used instead. Dirbine was made initially as a set of stages within Gerosha. Later, it was defined with the Downtown neighborhood that came with Nightlife, as well as a campus map that came with University.

Comprehensive Gerosha changed things around, with Gerosha being defined as having been built atop the remains of Boonville, which was destroyed in the alternate history that is the Gerosha multiverse. Gerosha's map is defined as being Boonville's, map, with actual locations in Boonville serving a purpose in the story. Erin's house was modeled after a real house in Boonville, for example. However, Sims 3 concept art has been all over several maps in terms of where to depict events. Much of early concept art for Ciem: Vigilante Centipede was made using the Twinbrook neighborhood; though Appaloosa Plains and Bridgeport was also used heavily. As of the Cataclysmic Gerosha narrative, concept art for Sodality has utilized Appaloosa Plains, Bridgeport, and Sunset Valley most extensively. Sunset Valley typically is used for Gerosha itself, with most major downtown areas being represented with Bridgeport. Regime-demolished Gerosha required several hours and numerous mods from The 13th Sim to depict in concept art as being a place of total ruin.