The Fallen Continent: Michigan
Split into two inaccessible halves, the Wolverine State is starkly divided, yet holds the key to the future of the Midwest.
Population: 650,000
Largest City: Grand Rapids
Thou rich in wealth makes a State,
Thou great in things that make us great,
Out loyal voices sound thy claim
Upon the golden roll of fame
Our loyal hands shall write the name
Of Michigan, my Michigan.
Introduction
Although southeast Michigan was badly battered by nuclear bombardment during the Great War, much of the state managed to pull through intact, and the land now has the second-highest population east of the Mississippi, sitting snugly between Wisconsin’s 680,000 and Mississippi’s 640,000.
The first rump state government was established at Battle Creek by the Attorney General, who wisely understood that his days were numbered and dispersed state resources throughout western Michigan. When Battle Creek was destroyed in a secondary strike after five months (it outlived Lafayette, Indiana by mere days), the state government still endured and reconvened in Grand Rapids after a two year period of decentralized government nomadism.
The Upper Peninsula was almost totally abandoned by the state authorities and descended into a state of anarchy that was interrupted by the Provisional All-American Government’s invasion of the UP and Wisconsin. Now the ASFR has brought the war to lower Michigan, and three different powerhouse factions vie for dominance.
The United States of America (Grand Rapids)
Once the threat of secondary strikes dissipated, the roving government of Michigan established a permanent capital in Grand Rapids, now the state’s most populous city. The nuclear winter was hard, and there weren’t enough resources to feed all the locals, let alone the refugees, but the large National Guard force dispersed throughout southwest Michigan ensured the government’s ability to maintain order. By the end of the Starving Time, they determined that it was time to begin expanding and reclaiming the lost territories of the state. Starting with what were effectively two isolated islands of government authority (Grand Rapids and Muskegon), the Grand Rapids Government steadily absorbed the surrounding region.
To reflect their expansionist attitude and their desire to restore democratic government to the country (Grand Rapids was very strongly opposed to Martha Hunding’s authoritarian USA-St. Cloud, the main federal claimant in the Midwest at the time), the state Supreme Court ruled that the State of Michigan had an obligation to uphold the US constitution and hold national elections. From this ruling, the United States of America (Grand Rapids) was born.
The USA-Grand Rapids was unique in that it tried to represent the US federal government in its entirety, arguing that Michigan would represent all fifty states at once until more of them could be reclaimed. They redrew electoral districts to reflect this and gave Michigan all 100 senators and 435 representatives in the US Congress, as well as all 535 votes in the electoral college.1 This created an awkward situation where constantly-shifting congressional districts were being repeatedly redrawn, while the congressmen only represented a few hundred constituents each.
The Grand Rapids federal government wasn’t entirely impotent, as is the case in Tupelo, Mississippi, but mostly existed to help the State of Michigan with problems it couldn’t solve entirely on its own. The State of Michigan also handed control of certain services like the postal system back to the federal government. Most importantly, the US President retained his role as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces; in fact, as most executive rulership was done by the Governor of Michigan, the President actually functioned as a primarily military office and even commanded troops out in the field on occasion. Although they struggled to retake the rebellious south near the Indiana and Ohio border and Upper Michigan remained untamable, the USA-Grand Rapids was, for many years, considered the country’s main success story east of the Mississippi. It unfortunately didn’t last.
Northern Michigan (that is to say, northern Lower Michigan or “Up North,” as opposed to Upper Michigan) was never under Grand Rapids’ firm control. Rather, it fell under the control of Eli Rosenblatt, a powerful neo-feudal warlord out of Mt. Pleasant, who conquered a huge swathe of the state ostensibly in the name of the Grand Rapids government. Grand Rapids reluctantly accepted Rosenblatt’s support, in the hopes that they could use his forces to recapture the rest of the state, and then slowly undermine Rosenblatt’s regime before finally dismantling it. The deal with the devil took a turn for the worse when Rosenblatt announced he was running for president. With the understanding that Rosenblatt was going to use the territory under his control as a political machine to rig the elections, Grand Rapids refused to let this upstart warlord run and barred him from the presidential race. In response, Rosenblatt split off and established his own dictatorial US government in Mt. Pleasant and attacked Grand Rapids. The Michigan Wars had begun, and the USA-Grand Rapids would not come out of them alive.
American Council Republic
Capital: Grand Rapids
Classification: Left-Wing Ideological Regime (Red Army dictatorship)
In response to the crisis caused by Rosenblatt’s invasion, the Grand Rapids government declared a state of emergency. The Governor of Michigan cancelled state elections and “suggested” that the federal government do the same. Governor Trevor Falzon extended his own term indefinitely and hand-picked the young, energetic National Guard officer Canaan Whiteley for the House of Representatives to elect as president to command the army.
Up to that moment, Whiteley’s military experience only amounted to minor anti-bandit operations around the Kalamazoo-Battle Creek Exclusion Zone. It is thought that Falzon chose a young and inexperienced president in the hopes that he could control him, but Whiteley proved to be a surprisingly able commander. He quickly blunted Rosenblatt’s southwestern advance and stabilized the frontlines, although his own northward offensive got bogged down from logistical difficulties. When the main front degenerated into a stalemate, the rest of the war shifted its focus to the north, where a pro-Grand Rapids local government in Traverse City tried to keep up the fight.
It is during this phase when the rank-and-file troopers of the Grand Union Army (the armed forces of the USA-GR) began to take on their distinct ideological bent and emerged as a faction in Michigan politics. They became disillusioned with the perceived insufficiencies of the democratic mode of government, especially after witnessing how it could be abused by warlords like Eli Rosenblatt. They saw the revolutionaries of Green Bay, Wisconsin across Lake Michigan as a source of inspiration and turned to socialism as an answer. They also saw the state government of Michigan as meddlers who were preventing the rightful federal government from doing its job and liberating the people of Michigan and America in general. Governor Falzon became their hated overlord, and President Whiteley was raised up in his place as their savior.
Whiteley himself did not subscribe to his troops’ socialist beliefs, but did nothing to combat them and actually appreciated the élan it instilled in them on the battlefield. In general, Whiteley gained a startling reputation as a political chameleon who easily shifted between political factions depending on his needs. He even displayed sympathy for the Rosenblatt regime at times, and showed clemency to captured Mt. Pleasant troops. The notable exception to this mercy was his infamous culling of the Pentwater Volunteer Rifles, an auxiliary infantry battalion that defected to Rosenblatt’s army before switching sides again. Instead of accepting them with open arms once more, he decimated the unit; dividing the battalion into groups of ten, he forced them to draw lots, in which the nine winners would have to beat the loser to death. This put an end to the defections and also instilled a newfound fear of the Commander-in-Chief in the hearts of the Michigan state government.
The tipping point came when Whiteley’s forces were finally trapped in Traverse City and forced to surrender. Acting President Rosenblatt treated the captured President with surprising magnanimity, treating the troops with dignity worthy of Appomattox and allowed them to march back south after signing a ceasefire agreement. The news was poorly received by Governor Falzon, whose administration was already suffering from plummeting approval rates thanks to a combination of war-induced economic hardship, his growing authoritarianism, and ASFR-backed socialist political agitation. When Falzon ordered the resignation and arrest of President Whiteley, the Grand Union Army refused to comply.
Whiteley himself didn’t want to take things any further than they had already gone and genuinely wanted peace by this point, but he was beginning to lose control of his frenzied, extremist troops. At the insistence of his general staff and political advisors, he decided to ride the wave of radicalism for his own gain and marched on Grand Rapids. They then tried and executed Falzon, dismantled the state government, and purged most of the federal government. Its remnants were reorganized by the revolutionary military into a workers’ council and a new constitution was drafted for the American Council Republic, the self-proclaimed successor to the United States of America. Its first round of national elections (in which only one candidate was on the ballot) resulted in a victory for Canaan Whiteley and his Revolutionary Union Party with 99.98% of the vote.
The American Council Republic Today
Since his proper takeover, President Whiteley has ruled as a de facto military dictator backed by the revolutionary Grand Union Army. There is a rudimentary socialist party structure which mostly revolves around the vestigial elements of the USA-Grand Rapids’ federal government. ASFR agitation also led to the formation of revolutionary cells within Grand Rapids and Muskegon, who undermined Falzon’s administration and came out in support of Whiteley’s revolution. There was some internal struggle among these cells between the more idealistic libertarian socialists and Whiteley loyalists, but the loyalists naturally came out on top with the backing of the army. All pre-existing trade unions have been integrated into the party structure and operate under the military’s careful supervision; given how reliant the ACR is on its strong industrial base, it wouldn’t want its workers to start striking any time soon.
Since the revolution, Grand Rapids has mostly been focused on trying to quash dissident elements within its territory and transition out of provisional military rule into a proper socialist workers’ republic; both of these things are easier said than done. Their long-term goal is to take over Michigan and unite with the American Socialist Federative Republic, their big brothers across Lake Michigan. The idea of a national claimant faction deferring to a rival national claimant may sound odd, but it isn’t without precedent in socialist history; the Far Eastern Republic of Pacific Russia, for instance, spent two years as an independent state before unifying with the USSR. The ACR owes its continued existence to the extensive aid provided by Green Bay and the over-lake trade between the two factions. Now that the war with USA-Mt. Pleasant has flared up again, they need their help more than ever.
President Whiteley still has some reservations with socialism, but is somewhat of a prisoner of his own army. He now rules as a figurehead for the provisional GUA council that handles day-to-day government in his place, and is trying to make the most of this predicament. The main area in which he asserts himself as a leader is in trying to prevent the worst excesses of Red Army rule and maintain some semblance of continuity with the old government. Although not a religious man himself, Whiteley was brought up as an Evangelical Christian and respects the right of believers to practice freely; as such, he has continuously defended churches and charitable organizations from the wrath of the revolutionaries. Still, Whiteley is now an old man, and the army council is growing increasingly frustrated with his meddling hesitancy. Although the ASFR has to keep up appearances for the sake of good diplomacy, they never liked Whiteley either and have always been skeptical of his loyalty to the socialist cause. They have no reason to take action against him now, but as soon as he’s passed, the training wheels will come off and Grand Rapids will proceed with the revolution at breakneck pace.
United States of America (Mt. Pleasant)
Capital: Mt. Pleasant
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Civilian dictatorship)
When the Great War began, high school principal Eli Rosenblatt knew he was destined for greatness. Leveraging a spot on the Mt. Pleasant rationing board after the bombs fell, he politicked himself to the top of the board and used his position to dominate the entire city. He used the city’s newly-formed militia as the nucleus of his neo-feudal army, while swelling its ranks with radical college students, refugees from east Michigan, and survivalists bandits. With this formidable army, he conquered large swathes of central and northern Michigan and then set about legitimizing his rule by declaring his loyalty to the Grand Rapids government.
When Grand Rapids announced that they were holding national elections, Rosenblatt made his bid for the presidency, using his wide base of “supporters” (read: soldiers and neo-serfs) to give him a clear shot at an easy victory. Grand Rapids anticipated his electoral antics and barred him from the race. In response, he cut all ties with Grand Rapids and declared its government null and void. Drawing up a random, low-level pre-war state official who was as starving and powerless as any other refugee by that point, he elevated him to the position of Acting Governor as his puppet. In return, the puppet governor appointed Rosenblatt and one his his cronies as Michigan’s two senators. From there, Rosenblatt used the President Pro Tempore trick2 to land himself in the presidency.
Rosenblatt was, even at the best of times, a cruel and sociopathic ruler, even as far as neo-feudal warlords go. He was extremely competent however, and managed to go toe-to-toe with Grand Rapids’ forces despite their stronger military industry and his aging neofeudalist structure. He also knew when to hold himself back and be the better man, such as his famously benevolent acceptance of Canaan Whiteley’s surrender at Traverse City. That surrender resulted in a ceasefire that marked the effective end of the first Michigan War. No formal treaty of peace was signed, but Rosenblatt had no interest in persecuting the war any further after capturing Traverse City. He had resolved one of the two fronts and bought himself time to rest, recuperate, and reorganize his realm.
After years of fighting out in the field as a wandering neo-feudal warlord, Rosenblatt retired to Mt. Pleasant and set about rebuilding his forces and planning for the future. He spent the last years of his life consolidating his empire and chipping away at the neofeudalist structure, replacing it with a centralized, totalitarian police state. The citizens of the United States of America have more in common with the inhabitants of East Germany or Stalin’s Soviet Union than they do the rest of North America (though Blanchard’s Acadian People’s Republic still gives them all a run for their money). They are arguably more authoritarian than the communist dictatorship in Grand Rapids. Unlike other USA claimants, the USA-MP characteristically flies the American flag upside-down, symbolizing an America in distress.
After solidifying his realm into a powerful police state, Rosenblatt passed away from leukemia, leaving his daughter, Hannah Salomon, to inherit his presidency. Where Rosenblatt was a cold, highly-functioning sociopath, Salomon is outright sadistic. Rosenblatt could at least command some measure of respect from his subjects, but Salomon has earned only fear. As soon as she took office, she geared the country back up for war, and has driven her forces south in a renewed war with Grand Rapids.
Mount Pleasant is powerful, and has just barely eclipsed Grand Rapids in terms of military and industrial capacity, but it is also a pariah state. Few other factions recognize them, and those who do only acknowledge them at a distance for the purposes of warding off rival claimants like Dodge City or St. Cloud. There’s a good chance they will be able to overcome the ACR before Green Bay can arrive in force, but the NAA will be right behind them, ready to block with all their might.
State of Michigan
Capital: Jackson
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Regime (Far-right legitimist regime)
Allegiance: New American Alliance
Hugging the southern border of Michigan is the State of Michigan, one of the newer members of the New American Alliance. They originated as the Michigan Volunteer Militia, a right-wing paramilitary loosely descended from the apocalyptic Christian nationalist “Hutaree” movement of the early 2000s. The MVM came out of the woodwork to secure southern Michigan after the state government abandoned it during the Starving Time. They incorporated other militias, defeated local warlords, and policed territory in the process to build up a formidable militia regime in the region before the end of the decade. In its early days, the MVM regime operated under an organized, militaresque structure where local captains reported to the central militia council in Jackson.
Things changed after Grand Rapids proclaimed their own federal government, and escalated further when Eli Rosenblatt tried to cross the Rubicon. The MVM was never fond of Grand Rapids to begin with and decried their state Supreme Court ruling as unconstitutional. Jackson established its own state government in response and took in right-wing political dissidents from both Grand Rapids and Mt. Pleasant. Together, they built a right-wing civilian government with its own political party structure.
Michigan-Jackson is not Michigan’s furthest-right faction, but it is one of them, and is counted somewhere between the Indiana Minutemen and the American Salvation Coalition. Their local democracy revolves around the Michigan Patriots Party, the political arm of the MVM. The MPP runs on a pro-white, pro-Christian, pro-gold standard, anti-communist, and generally very socially conservative platform, but there is a lot of variance on specific issues within the party itself. The Jackson government also allows independents and a neutered Republican Party to run as controlled opposition; all other political parties are officially outlawed. The main ongoing debate in Jackson is about the future of the economy. Republicans and MPP moderates demand a return to free-market capitalism, which has become an increasingly popular proposal since the Grand Rapids Revolution. MPP hardliners and extremist independents (most independents in Michigan-Jackson are actually extreme far-rightists with openly fascist views) want to keep militia-directed economy to ensure their readiness for war in case of a communist assault.
The Red Panic provoked by the Grand Rapids Revolution also prompted a change in attitudes across state lines. The Ohio-based New American Alliance, which had previously tried to keep its distance from Jackson, suddenly warmed up to the militiamen, whom they now viewed as the first line of defense against communist aggression. Jackson, for its part, downplayed its political extremism during talks with Sandusky, understanding the utility of such an alliance. The talks concluded swiftly with the State of Michigan’s induction into the NAA as its furthest-right member.
Despite the ideological differences between Michigan and the other states, Jackson gets along well with the rest of the NAA. The faction’s decentralized nature means that the other states don’t have to worry much about Michigan imposing their political well on them, and Michigan’s own fears of Sandusky’s overreach have been assuaged by promises of their enduring autonomy. Both Michigan and Ohio now need each other’s backs for the future. Once the NAA clears up the immediate warlord threat in western Ohio, they’ll inevitably turn their attentions northward to settle the Michigan question once and for all.
Defense Solutions
Capital: Owosso
Classification: Warlord (Mercenary band)
Situated between the destroyed ruins of Lansing, Flint, and Saginaw is the city of Owosso, the last remaining settlement in a large, desolate region. Owosso’s remoteness from the more populous centers of Michigan and the powerful factions that are based there makes it a desirable destination for outlaw bands and petty warlords who have nowhere else to go. Six such bands have ruled over the town since the Great War, with the sixth finally having stabilized into a more permanent order.
That faction is Defense Solutions, a mercenary company that spent years as a migratory warband, selling their services to the highest bidder. They were drawn into Owosso (a town they’d frequently fought in before, both for and against the ruling authorities) to help its incumbent warlord, the Undead Workers’ Party, fend off raids from Islamist bandits. The bandits were swiftly dealt with, but the UWP collapsed due to infighting in the meantime, and Defense Solutions was drawn in to settle the dispute. By the time the dust had settled, the Party was effectively wiped out and the mercenaries were the last ones standing. With no one else left in charge, the town became theirs to rule.
Since their unintentional takeover, they’ve ruled Owosso as warlords in their own right, and have been slowly trying to fashion a more stable and purposeful government to prevent further warlord coups. They’re not quite at the legitimist level yet, but it’s coming down the pipe sooner or later.
American Islamic Emirate
Capital: Port Austin
Classification: Religious Faction (Religious monarchy)
Prior to the Great War, the city of Dearborn in the Detroit Metropolitan Area was home to America’s largest Muslim community. Many of them perished during the Great War, but a good deal of them survived. They banded together as a tight-knit community during the Starving Time, as they knew they could not count on any outsiders for help.
As has happened many times across the wasteland, especially among fringe groups, religious fervor and millenarianism took hold. Michigan’s Muslim population were mostly Shiites, and many of them supported a charismatic and mystical religious teacher who declared himself to be Muhammad ibn al-Hasad al-Madhi: the twelfth and final Imam of Shia prophecy, who is also the Madhi, the long-awaited Messiah that will conquer the world for Islam to prepare the return of the Prophet Isa and the End Times.
The Imam led his followers north into the “thumb” of Michigan, a region that was not irradiated, but was heavily depopulated due to its isolation from remaining infrastructure. Here, the Shiites have carved out a new state for themselves, the “Mahdist Imamate.” Like most Messianic cults, the regime did not outlast its ruler, and the Mahdist state fell apart following the Imam’s death. Many Muslims became disillusioned with Islam and either abandoned the colony or abandoned the faith altogether; there remains the pestilential nuisance of relapsed Muslim bandits in the frigid Michigan bush country to this day.
Those Muslims who remained in the colony were forced to look for answers and discover a new path going forward. For a few years they lived under a chaotic “American Islamic Republic” that was marred by infighting and divided authority. This era was brought to the end with the rise of a new fundamentalist strongman who abolished the republic, crowned himself as the religious monarch of all America, and established the American Islamic Emirate.
The Emirate remains geographically very isolated, surrounded by a large stretch of desolate, sparsely-populated territory ringed by NEZs separating them from the outside world. Most of their contact with the wider world is by boat across Lake Huron. The Emirate does have an imperative to conquer Michigan (and, from there, the rest of America), but so far has not expanded beyond the gradual rate of colonization into the Thumb’s uninhabited hinterland.
There is one great foreign policy venture that the Emirate has yet invested in: they hate the Jewish-led USA-Mt. Pleasant as the new “Great Satan” of America and are bent on its destruction. To this end, they’ve established a volunteer legion of fighters (“freedom fighters” to their friends, “jihadists” to their enemies, as is often the case with Muslim paramilitaries) and shipped them across Saginaw Bay to help the Lake Huron Redoubt in their fight against President Salomon. The people of Standish aren’t thrilled about the sudden influx of Muslim soldiers in their city, but they need all the help they can get to survive.
Lake Huron Redoubt
Capital: Standish
Classification: Local Government (Emergency county government)
Allegiance: Michigan Emergency Government
The Lake Huron Redoubt is an extensively-fortified and militarized area built up by a local sheriff, who received an influx of fighters fleeing the Mt. Pleasant regime. They lack the strength to push back against Salomon, but they’ll be a thorn in her side until she can bring all her forces to bear on them. The arrival of the Islamist expeditionary force has bought the Redoubt more time to hold out against Mt. Pleasant, but it’s introduced a lot of racial and religious tension in the process. Many locals fear it’s only a matter of time until the Sheriff and the Emir turn on each other and tear themselves apart through infighting—and many locals can’t decide which prospect seems worse: a Michigan under Salomon’s boot, or a Michigan under Sharia law.
Wolverine Militia
Capital: Rogers City
Classification: Right-Wing Ideological Faction (Right-wing militia regime)
The Wolverine Militia is another faction clinging on to the shores of Lake Huron, resisting Salomon’s regime. They are a right wing militia much like the Jackson government, but are much more radical in their views and actions. Nonwhites are expelled from their territory under pain of death, and the Mt. Pleasant regime is openly hated for its Jewish leadership. Also unlike the MVM or their Hutaree ancestors, the Wolverine Militia is an officially secular organization and harbor some neo-pagans in their ranks.
Both the Wolverines and the Redoubt are supplied by the Michigan Emergency Government by over-lake routes. While they do not recognize Manistique, they unofficially cooperate with them. Their pragmatism ends there, however, and they fervently refuse to cooperate with the Islamists in any way, shape or form.
Kingdom of Beaver Island
Capital: St. James
Classification: Warlord (Warlord state)
Beaver Island has always been a home for the eccentric and the outcasts. It was once the seat of a Mormon theocratic kingdom in the mid-19th Century, and later became home to an isolated community of Gaelic-speaking Irish fishermen. Though the population was under 1,000 at the time of the Great War, the starvation rate was lower than much of the country, due to its isolation and reliance on fishing. Shortly after the end of the Starving Time, Beaver Island was captured by a warlord fleeing from Eli Rosenblatt’s conquest of north Lower Michigan. Subsisting off of fishing and piracy, the warlord and his followers settled into their new home and established the Kingdom of Beaver Island.
He bolstered the Kingdom’s population by taking in refugees fleeing Traverse City after Rosenblatt’s conquest, as well as blatant lake-borne kidnapping raids (most of his subjects were male, so this was the only way he could get wives for his soldiers to calm them down). Unlike some other small warlord kingdoms, such the Kingdom of Idaho, the King of Beaver Island is fond of royal pageantry and truly wishes to present himself as a noble king of old. Funding his reign through piracy, he has spared no expense in accumulating regalia for himself and his closest supporters, though some would rather have that money actually go towards building up the islands.
The war between the ACR and Mt. Pleasant has been his big break; with funding and equipment provided by the MEG in Manistique, his ships now harass Red Army shipping and disrupt the ASFR’s supply missions to the ACR.
United States Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes
Capital: Sault Ste. Marie
Classification: Military Faction (Military administration)
The cities of Sault Ste. Marie, which spanned both sides of the US-Canadian border, were together a target for Russian trans-polar bombers in the Great War, but were miraculously spared when the Russian atomic bombs failed to detonate and the bombers were intercepted. With the Russians believing the city to be destroyed, it was spared from any secondary strikes, though the city was struck by conventional bombardment on both sides of the Soo Locks. Most of the city’s population lived on the Canadian side of the border, but both cities were flooded with refugees from southern Michigan and Ontario, straining the efficiency of the local emergency administrations and stifling cooperation.
The American side of the city came under the control of the US Coast Guard Sector Northern Great Lakes, which recognized the Battle Creek government and its successor in Grand Rapids. After the destruction of the Canadian national rump government in Kingston, Ontario, local authorities in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario began to flounder. The US Coast Guard assumed full command of both cities and their neighboring towns in both Michigan and Ontario. No effort was spared to repair the Soo Locks and ensure maritime travel between Lake Superior and Lake Huron remained possible.
The USCG-SNGL’s method of governance is ad hoc and unwieldy, having to administer mostly Canadian territory and rule over mostly Canadian people. Officially, there is no civilian or local government, and the entire territory is under military control. The military administration is aided, however, by two civilian boards of local leaders with a purely advisory role for each city: one for the United States, and one for Canada. It’s up to the Coast Guard to select the board members, but they leave it up to popular vote to recommend which candidates they should pick. These civilian advisory boards, in turn, unofficially cooperate with each other in a regional association, forming a kind of parallel government with no legal powers but a not insignificant level of influence on the military government’s policy.
Unlike for the National Guard, Grand Rapids never gave any order for the Coast Guard to withdraw from the UP and instead desired that they maintain their control over Sault Ste. Marie and the locks. As such, the Coast Guard remained loyal to Grand Rapids, while the National Guard did not. The Coast Guard maintained their support following Eli Rosenblatt’s revolt and only broke ties with Grand Rapids following the socialist takeover. They are now negotiating with the Michigan Emergency Government, seeking some kind of agreement that will unify the two bodies while preserving Sault Ste. Marie’s power.
Michigan Emergency Government
Capital: Manistique
Classification: Military Faction (Emergency military government)
Though the K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base was closed in 1995, it was reactivated during the Great 21st Century Crisis as a base for trans-polar bombers in the event of a nuclear war. The 410th Bombardment Wing was re-attached to the base, and worked in tandem with the Royal Canadian Air Force 25th Wing, which operated from the same base. The 410th and 25th Wings fought in the Great War, attacking several targets near the Ural Mountains, including the city of Vorkuta. They returned to find K.I. Sawyer AFB destroyed, along with the nearby city of Marquette. The bombers continued south to land in the city of Escanaba on the shore of Lake Michigan, though some of the Canadians turned east to bail out over Ontario.
Though most Michigan National Guard units in the Upper Peninsula had been withdrawn to the south, the 410th and 25th Wings stayed behind in Escanaba to restore order. While they initially recognized the Grand Rapids government, they resented the capital’s neglect of the Upper Peninsula in favor of establishing a redoubt around Grand Rapids and Muskegon. The breaking point came when Grand Rapids ordered the military to completely abandon the Upper Peninsula and join them down south. The armed forces in Escanaba responded by declaring the Grand Rapids government illegitimate, before establishing a state military government of their own. The new Michigan Emergency Government moved their capital to the more central, secure location of Manistique and vowed to secure the Upper Peninsula before returning south. Though they began as an Air Force administration, they gradually incorporated local governments, militias, National Guard holdouts, and certain cooperative warlords, and they are now in dialogue with the US Coast Guard regime in Sault Ste. Marie.
They keep their smaller neighbors throughout Michigan at arm’s length, disliking their rejection of their own authority, but understanding the need to build a wide coalition of cooperative powers to keep Mt. Pleasant and the ASFR at bay. Though they do not yet recognize the Provisional All-American Government, they have thrown their hat in the ring with them and are fighting alongside them against the communists, providing air support to the White Army from afar and pestering Green Bay with bombing raids. Although they hope they will never have to use them, the MEG possesses two functional, though disarmed nuclear bombs left over from the Great War, which they keep in their arsenal as a weapon of last resort. Should they be pushed too far, Green Bay and Grand Rapids may some day be remembered as America’s youngest NEZs.
Menominee River Defensive Zone
Capital: Iron Mountain
Classification: Legitimist Warlord (Oligarchic confederation)
Straddling the Menominee River and the lucrative iron ore mines surrounding it is the Menominee River Defensive Zone, a legitimist confederation of survivalist gangs, mining bosses, rogue government officials, and other local despots. Like other Upper Peninsula factions, they’ve been in their own little world for decades after being isolated from the rest of the country. The Zone’s constituents frequently fought amongst each other before coming together to shut out potential invaders like Superior, the MEG, or the communists. There are still frequent disagreements within the Zone’s rough-and-tumble council, where discordant despots argue about whether or not they should institute a stable central government.
The main impetus for potential centralization is the communist threat. They’ve recently taken over Marinette, the mouth of the Menominee River, and have shut off the Menominee iron trade. With their economic livelihood at stake, the Defensive Zone is gearing up for war, to punish the insolent communists and secure their fortunes.
Icemen
Capital: Watersmeet
Classification: Warlord (Survivalist gang)
The Icemen are Upper Michigan’s resident petty warlord faction. They have a far-right, white nationalist bent to them, but have always been a survivalist gang focused on their own survival and enrichment, first and foremost. They’re capable fighters (and even more capable bandits), and have stuck around for far longer than the average petty warlord. Up to now, they’ve been standing on the sidelines of the Red-White War, hoping it would stretch out for as long as possible in order for them to exploit it through raids and war profiteering. Now that the communists are really picking up momentum, they’re growing scared and are reaching out to the PAAG for cooperation.
Ironwood Guard
Capital: Ironwood
Classification: Military Faction (Rogue military faction)
Allegiance: Provisional All-American Government
Like the Michigan Emergency Government, the Ironwood Guard is made up of soldiers who refused Grand Rapids’ orders to abandon the Upper Peninsula. In Manistique’s case, it was airmen—in Ironwood’s, it’s National Guardsmen. Their ad hoc Ironwood Guard does not correspond to a real prewar military unit, but individual groups of deserters who banded together to stay in the UP after the rest of their comrades left them behind. They’ve since swelled their ranks with local recruits, mostly militiamen and survivalists. Their proud self-reliance and rugged way of life made them well-disposed to the Provisional All-American Government, which they have recognized since its foundation.
They took a passive role in the PAAG’s invasion of Wisconsin; although they did send a token force to help at the frontlines, their main contribution to the war effort has been their shipments of iron ore and timber to fuel the White Army’s war machine. Now that the Army of Northern Wisconsin is trapped and the communists are closing in, the Ironwood Guard is gearing up for the fight of its life.
State of Superior
Capital: L’Anse
Classification: State Legacy (Divisionist state government)
The Upper Peninsula’s second-largest faction is the State of Superior, established by a state representative who was visiting constituents in the UP when the war broke out. The Yoopers have always held some level of support for independent statehood, though no organized movement existed at the time of the Great War. When Grand Rapids gave the order to evacuate the UP, however, the Yoopers rallied behind their representative, who elected to stay instead.
Serving as provisional governor, representative Jordan Haapanen organized the locals, some other state officials in the area, and a few sympathetic National Guardsmen into a new secessionist state government. The founding of the State of Superior was somewhat contentious, as refugees from Marquette displaced the local Keweenaw Bay Indians in L’Anse, who fought back against the encroaching settlers. After an initial rocky start, they united with the Sheriff of Ontonagon County and defeated the sadistic warlord of Copper Harbor.
Once their position in Upper Michigan’s “Copper Country” was secured, Superior finally held statewide elections. Haapanen was elected governor by a landslide, and continued to hold that position for sixteen years while enjoying a cult-like following as the founding father of Superior. Even after his retirement, he continued to influence politics as the power behind the throne until his death five years later. Only now have state politics begun to liberalize, although the Republican Party remains dominant; the UP has always been heavily Republican-leaning, and most of the Democratic population of Superior are descendants from the Marquette refugees.
Superior has always been somewhat isolationist in nature and has never fully backed a national claimant faction, not even the USA-St. Cloud or USA-Grand Rapids in the days before their respective revolutions. They aren’t outright secessionists, however, and do consider themselves to be the 51st state of the United States of America (although you won’t often find US flags flying alongside the state flag in Superior). They’ve got their eyes on the Icemen and MRDZ in the medium term and the MEG in the long term (they have nothing really against them, but they just don’t believe that a Michigan-based faction would really have the Upper Peninsula’s best interests in mind), but have put expansion on hold to tackle the crisis of the Red-White War between the PAAG and ASFR. To ensure their own survival, they’ve mobilized an expeditionary force and are sending it west to help the Army of Northern Wisconsin as it tries to contain the socialist advance.
National Park Service (Isle Royale)
Capital: Windigo
Classification: Federal Legacy (National Park Service)
Allegiance: Provisional All-American Government
In the days following the Great War, the Isle Royale National Park was cut off from the rest of the country, with hundreds of trapped vacationers and hikers stuck on the island. The National Park Service had to take control, administering the island from Windigo Ranger Station. They were hard-pressed by the Starving Time, receiving an influx of refugees from destroyed Thunder Bay, Ontario. Over the years, Isle Royale was built up into a hard-scrabble frontier settlement, restarting the copper industry of the island and trading with mainland communities on the shores of Lake Superior.
The National Park regime is loyal to the Provisional All-American Government down south. They have sent a small, token force of rangers south into Bayfield to aid the Army of Northern Wisconsin, but are already tied down by frequent raids from New Vinland. One of the ongoing points of dispute between the PAAG and the neopagans is the ownership of Isle Royale, and it continues to put strain on the two parties’ efforts towards military cooperation against the communists. Should the PAAG fall, it is very likely that Isle Royale will fall to the pagans.
Index
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The District of Columbia’s three electoral votes were removed in recognition of the virtually permanent destruction of the region. There was some debate over whether or not they should have been permanently reassigned to Michigan, given back to Maryland to be held in trust by Michigan, or even kept by Michigan in trust for a hypothetically rebuilt Washington, DC. The Supreme Court ruled that it would be best for DC to be remembered as a martyr city and for the electors to be abolished.
This is when a warlord gets himself and a loyal supporter appointed as US senators. The US congress is now made up of only two people, who can unanimously vote for the warlord as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, who is third in line for the US Presidency after the Vice President and Speaker of the House. This is a common tactic of legitimist warlords with national ambitions to get themselves a semi-legitimate title as Acting President, and is often called the “Michigan Maneuver” after Rosenblatt, as his regime is the highest-profile instance of its employment.
Lets go MI in time for stack to grant you tts reading.