Kansas

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"Culture and manners have never come to town, but you've got to respect a people that can tell an erupting volcano to go to hell."
—Marshal Rainslaker

Located at 29°43'11" S, 00°50'07" E at the intersection of the East Meridian and Vathek Rivers, Kansas (permanent pop. 2,600) is the largest native settlement on Prime Meridian, and among the only native settlements that's completely landlocked.

Like many Abandonment-era settlements, Kansas's early history is poorly documented, but the current site has been continuously inhabited since at least 2155. Recontact and the ensuing population boom introduced ranching to the region, turning Kansas into the agricultural hub of Prime Meridian and making the natives extremely well-off by native standards.

Physical Layout

Kansas is obviously unplanned, full of poorly-laid-out buildings and dirt streets that turn to mud in storms or during market season. Centre Street and Mars Avenue roughly divide Kansas into quarters, and most of the permanent town exists within three blocks of the intersection. The rest of Kansas consists of river docks, seasonal housing, warehouses, and maglev terminals connecting the settlement to al-Mamlakah.

On the western edge of town are two squalid, stinking ampitheaters named Pit 1 and Pit 2, capable of holding 4,000 and 8,000 people respectively. These are frantic zoos of activity during market season, and cavernous empty warehouses the other 300 days of the year.

Government

A native woman named Kristina Brunner has run Kansas for 16 years, keeping Kansas independent of both the GEO and Atlas Materials. Her only meaningful opposition in town is GEO Deputy Marshal Rainslaker, who leads fifteen hand-picked Native Patrol officers across the region; the two famously don't get along.

Economy

Three times a year, Kansas hosts a ten-day agricultural market, drawing farmers and herders from around the region. The population explodes during these markets, and most of the livestock, grain, and produce is sent to al-Mamlakah by maglev for distribution across Poseidon.