Grand Combine of America

*"What we have here is the single greatest pit of machinery in America."*

The Grand Combine of America, composed of the former states of Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin, is one of the most powerful vassals within the North American Union. It is ruled by House Jackson rand Jackson Manufacturing Inc. from the Dark City of Detroit, though the Combine's ruling corporate overlords regularly convene in Madison, Wisconsin.

## Background

The origins of House Jackson and the Grand Combine as a whole stem from the Watchers; a team of superheroes affiliated with corporate interests that were protectors of the American Midwest. They and their compatriots, the Great Lakes Guard, allied with Columbia and Hammer during the Metahuman Coup, and successfully deposed the state governments in their region. They would then go on to become rulers of the new lordship that was carved out of the American Midwest.

This lordship came to be known as the Grand Combine of America, a Dynastic realm known for its great industrial prowess, if not for a stellar environment. It seemed that it would keep on this existence for the foreseeable future, that is, until a revolt erupted within its territories after the sudden death of the matriarch of the Kelvin Dynasty. Forces loyal to the old American government, including some metahumans, began an insurrection. In that short conflict, one of the fiercest battlegrounds between metahumans loyal to the old order and that of the new was the city of Detroit. The Watchers, led by the Star Forger, were able to defeat their traitorous former allies, the Great Lakes Guard, at the cost of their own lives. However, their victory over the Resistance operation would have other consequences. The leader of the Great Lakes Guard, Shadowstorm, decided to do one last act of defiance to spite the Dynastic metahumans. As she lay dying from plasma burns when she had her epic duel with the Star Forger, Shadowstorm called upon the great clouds of smog and smoke that hung over the vast factory complexes, churning them into a darkness that cast eternal twilight upon the city of Detroit and the surrounding towns. The Star Forger soon succumbed to his own wounds from the fight, and was succeeded by the current High Overlord, Magnetar.

Still, after the initial years of transition from the old state governments to the dynastic system, the Grand Combine stands as one of the major lordships within the North American Union. It is essentially an agglomeration of several powerful industrial corporations, each led by a board of both metahumans and humans. These corporations control the former states that make up the Grand Combine as their own fiefdoms, though they are subject to House Jackson, which leads both the GC and their own corporation from their fortress palace in the Dark City of Detroit. However, the constituent corporations often disagree on many things, and they will veto each other’s resolutions again and again, leading to a state where barely anything ever gets done. At least, until House Jackson began to prod them towards a productive direction when the new High Overlord was crowned