@PoptartProdigy - This is essentially the same proposal as the last one, just replacing Milwaukee with Minneapolis. I didn't get an answer about possibly using Indianapolis or Louiseville, so I assumed that was negative and went with this. It makes a little less sense not being so close to the Commonwealth, but overall I think it still holds up well enough.
Name: State of Minneapolis
Government: Elective Autocracy (Great if you're a citizen, if not, you're shit outta luck)
Territory: Directly administers the city of Miniapolis and it's immediate surroundings, projects hegemony over a much greater if vaguer stretch of land, focused on extracting food and wealth for its still significant population. At it's greatest extent, tax collectors can be seen visiting from Rochester to St. Cloud. These various smaller polities pay tribute for 'protection,' but otherwise are left to their own devices.
Capitol: Minneapolis
Leadership: Mayor Harold Harding, Commander Lucas Benoit (There's a loose balance of power between the civilian government and National Guard, the symbiosis of which has allowed the city to - relatively, of course - prosper despite everything)
History: Minneapolis, unsurprisingly, had it just as rough as all the other major US cities in the Collapse. In order to make ends meet, the city began extorting food from its neighbors with a significant subordinated National Guard contingent, and as the decades have passed, turned this 'temporary measure' into a matter of policy even as the Emergency government was dispanded. There was still Revivalist rhetoric used into both the technically pre-collapse legacy government and NG military, but this has died off in both the leadership and population as the Old Nation's death throes began to cease.
This new Status-Quo was given a good kick to the balls
when the infamous General "Hellfire" Burns contacted Commander Benoit in an attempt to gather allies for his Revivalist movement in Chicago, urging the former National Guard officer to declare for the new United States. Initially hesitant - there was even an attempted coup from more radical junior officers when the situation began to leak - Mayor Harold insisting that any disruption to the local strategic play would destabilize the hegemony Minneapolis needed to survive, the intervention of Victorian diplomats, and the Commonwealth's ...
confused status as to their actual legitimacy as a successor state all managed to calm everyone down, and with the declaration of war a policy of 'neutrality' was decided on, grumbling in the ranks aside.
After the stunning victories in the Battle of Detroit and Operation Foil, however, there is now a genuine crisis brewing in the State of Minneapolis. Both externally - backing the wrong horse is always a catastrophe in international politics -
and an increasingly critical internal situation, as the citizens and soldiers unfurl old American flags all the while their ostensible subjects see a possible third option. Even the diarchy between the Mayorship and National Guard grows strained as Benoit once again hears the call of Patriotism while Harold Harding frantically attempts to keep four decades of careful political navigation from completely unraveling.
Attitude: Alarmed and Embarrassed.
Goals: First and foremost, the mission of Minneapolis will always be to ensure they remain on top of their local hegemony, as their economy, food supply, and security all rely upon keeping the minor cities and towns subservient.
They're also facing considerable internal pressure to join in and help restore the Old Country, lest they be left behind as hypocrites and cowards. The ideal scenario for them would be to sign on as 'equal allies' to the New America - with assurances that Chicago will give them total autonomy and the final reunification's date is left appropriately vague. Enough to satisfy the internal populists banging their fists while also not compromising their strategic situation.
***
I'm not sure how well I conveyed this, but the overall theme I went for was the contrast between a powerful democracy's cynical realpolitik and their internal politics, which can be diametrically opposed. In practice, Minneapolis is yet another warlord state, but internally, they
are a democracy, and their national mythos based around being a legitimate American government who'd one day save the nation - especially in the military. Now the shot-callers are in a pickle.
