Alexandria

## Alexandria, Minnesota, UCAS "Easy to Get to, Hard to Leave"

* **Population (as of 2070)**: 19,285
* **Government:** Alexandria is the seat of Douglas County in the UCAS state of Minnesota. Administrative and legislative duties are overseen by a City Council. The City is divided into five wards with one Council Member per ward.  Presently there are two wards with two precincts which gives the City a total of seven voting precincts within the City limits. The Alexandria City Council is comprised of elected officials consisting of a Mayor and five City Council Members, all of whom are elected at-large. The Mayor serves a four year term and Council Members serve four year terms which are staggered every two years.  City elections are held on even-numbered years. Since 2040, Alexandria has practiced 'Stakeholder Democracy' meaning that each voter has a number of votes (minimum 1) proportional to the amount of property taxes paid to Douglas County and Alexandria. As per the Business Recognition Accords, corporations are recognized as eligible voters. The current Mayor, Meaghan Loveland, is up for re-election in 2076.
* **Territoriality:** There are three major extraterritorial tracts within Alexandria. Two owned by EVO-4M and one by Ares Macrotechnology. 1) Alomere Health/CrashCart campus, which is considered EVO-4M territory, 2) the primary EVO-4M Abrasives plant in Alexandria and 3) The Douglas Machine Plant, which is a wholly-owned and recognized possession of Ares Agribusiness and administered from the MSPlex.
* **Law Enforcement:** Knight Errant Security holds the contract for both security in both Alexandria proper and the Douglas Machine Plant. Borderlands Security Inc. is employed to secure the Alomere/CrashCart campus and the EVO-4M Abrasives Plant.
* **Transportation:** Road maintenance for all of Douglas County is under contract to North Central Roads, while Whippet Lines (a wholly owned subsidiary of Ares Motors) provides intra- and inter-city transport throughout the county.
* **Demographics (by Metatype):** Human 86%, Troll 6%, Dwarf 4%, Ork 2%, Elf 1%, Other 1%

A lot of people would think that a sleepy little place like Alexandria, MN (pop. 19,285) wouldn't be of much interest to people on the Shadowy side of the fence. To those people I say 'Look at the Map'. Alexandria is in the precarious position of being half-way between everything. And like my poppa always said 'In-between is where you find the Shadows'.

Physically, it's half-way between the RRDMZ and the 'Plex. Which makes it a central hub for a lot of the smuggling that goes on between those two regions (largely raw telesma and BTL's). What it has for an underworld here is firmly in the grip of 'Two-Time' Thompson, a down-home local Troll trucker, who ALSO happens to be the second-most powerful member of the of the Chinook smuggling syndicate, right behind Taylor West himself. Two-Time does a lot of his own business with the Callahan family in the 'Plex and has cut deals that keep the Heathens at a safe distance. If it happens here, he probably did it, got a cut from it or at least knows about it.

Economically, this is also a between place, and if the local smuggling scene doesn't generate enough business for you, the megacorporate conflict will. Alexandria is pretty much a company town these days. Only problem is, it's got two companies, which is about one more than either of them wants. Always a big Harris-4M town, when EVO acquired them, they acquired the third largest employer in town, and shortly after they snapped up the hospital, the largest employer in town, and made it a base for CrashCart. After that, the only business left in town that could stand up to them was Ares, which owned the second largest employer in town and held the security contract for policing the city. Right now, with EVO controlling medical services and Ares controlling the cops, the town is split almost evenly down the middle and both sides are straining at the leash for the signal to go from their respective superiors in the 'plex. The other corps that operate in town (such as NCR or WolfWare) keep their heads down and stay out of the Big Boys' ways.

This status as a place that's mostly between things is one of the reasons that Alexandria was chosen for the signing of the Alexandria Accords in 2065 between the UCAS and the Oceti Sakowin, which created the RRDMZ in the first place. It is a point of pride and the city has built a special 'Accords' mini museum abutting the Courthouse to advertise the fact. Side note: As staunch anglo UCASers, the locals here DEFINITELY have picked a side...

The Accords compete for being the biggest tourist draw in town with the iconic 'Big Ole: The World's Largest Viking' statue (see pic), which marks the museum housing the Kensington Runestone, a hoaxed runestone from the pre-Awakening which purported to be from Vikings that had reached all the way to Minnesota. While this has long since been disproven, the continued popularity of the hoax has, according to one local mage, given it power, because, not despite, the fact that it isn't a real artifact...

But even with the Runstone discredited, the power of faith by definition doesn't listen to proof and has attracted a sizable Asatru community, and the Futhark Temple here is the largest single Asatru community in Minnesota outside the 'Plex, and it is the second largest practiced religion in town just behind the two major flavors of Christianity.

Return to: **Places That Aren't Fargo**