SOMA

States of Middle America "SOMA"


 * Territory: A swath of territory west of the Mississippi River in North America, including the western reaches of Megalopolis, indeterminate borders with the 'wastelands'
 * Market: CEHO
 * Form of Government: (de jure) Decentralized Federal Democracy, (de facto) Martial Law by 'Emergency Government'.
 * Head of State/Head of Government: (de jure) President of the Council of Governors, (de facto) Head of the Emergency Committee
 * Capital: America City Metroplex "Kansas City", Capital Region
 * Subdivisions: SOMA is divided into ten States (Kansas, West Kansas, Nebraska, Niobara, Missouri, McDonald, Dakota, Arkansas, North Star and Iowa) and the separate Capital Region encompassing the 'America City' metroplex.

Like so much in the modern world, the strange little remnant state on the western side of the Mississippi has its origins in the Risings. Even before the America Wars, there had been political, and sometimes physical, violence between the mostly-coastal international metropolitan areas (backed largely by Coastal Solutions) and the mostly-central nonmetropolitan areas (who relied on PatrioTech to back them), originally an economic and political divide, by the time of the Risings it had become like two different cultures, with different news media, values and worldviews. Often the adherents of one cause might discount an event even happening because it was reported by the other side.

At the end of the America Wars, international peacekeeping forces were sent in to settle the conflict, breaking up the two big American consortiums and setting up a puppet state, the 'Reunited States of America' to administrate the shattered former superpower. However, the remnants of the former national army still loyal to the Continental cause gathered west of the reconstruction area and successfully argued that old PatrioTech strongholds would never bow to a eastern central government and that they were the only ones who could keep order along the Megalopolis' western border. As soon as the peacekeepers withdrew, they drew up a constitution and declared the 'States of Middle America', a sovereign state dedicated to regional autonomy and the 'Real American' way (a fact attested to by the fact that the last existing fragment of PatrioTech, America Inc, has its headquarters in SOMA's territories in the Western Megalopolis).

Ironically, while the Constitution proclaims the sovereignty of the individual States as strongly as possible, that Constitution has never truly been in effect. Established during the chaos of the post-War Risings, SOMA was founded in a state of Emergency Martial Law, a state of affairs that has obtained ever since. This has created complications for those passing between the western fringe of the Megalopolis and the rest of the megacity, but true to their nature, Megalopolins have adapted to this as just another part of the life of the sprawl.

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