War. War never changes.
The world learned that lesson far too late, when, one day over two hundred years ago, her superpowers turned on themselves with atomic fire. In the conflagration that followed, New York and Philadelphia, along with every other major city on the East Coast of North America, were absolutely annihilated. Tens of millions of lives were erased from existence on a single day.
But a handful survived. Some managed to escape the nuclear annihilation by fleeing into great vaults underground, their sealed doors protecting them. Others eked out an existence above ground, surviving decades of radiation and mutation. Yet, as those decades passed, in the lands between the ruined husks of New York and Philadelphia, these survivors, slowly but steadily, managed to rebuild. Here, the highways of the Old World began to flow with trade once again.
To the south, an alliance of coastal cities coalesced into a republic, centred on the old town of Atlantic City: the Atlantic Republic. To the north, a group of farming settlements unified under the aegis of a Federation, its capital in Morristown. And all around, independent towns large and small began to flourish.
But war, war never changes. As the Republic and the Federation came into contact, a new cold war began, as the two governments began contesting for influence across the entire region. The other settlements in the region have all been swept up into this conflict, some choosing to align with one or the other, others attempting to forge a path of independence.
Only the incursions of the Super Mutants from the southwest a decade ago gave cause for the two to settle their differences and forge a truce. But with the Super Mutants now driven back across the Delaware, this brief détente has come to an end.
Still, in this wasteland, this is truly a garden.
The Garden, for that is what the people of New Jersey call their homeland.