This was an interesting one. Oddly enough, sometimes there’s more information readily available about places and people who weren’t important statewide than there is about places and people who were. I pretty much had to plug in a bunch of Ye Standarde Conan Citie tropes here. Which, hey, actually works in this context.
Shattered Rock
City: Little Rock, Arkansas
Population: 27,000/240,000
Controls: Central Arkansas
Government: Despotism
Problem: Unrest
Heroic Opportunity: Mercenary Work
City Aspect: Tense and Corrupt
Technically, Governor Benjamin Travis Laney is still the Governor of Arkansas, and is nominally loyal to the US government: in reality, he’s the despot of central Arkansas. Unfortunately for his regime, Arkansas is also a potential buffer state. Laney is sympathetic to the Konfederacy, but it is far away; and as long as Texas refuses to pull the trigger on secession, it serves as an uncomfortable, and quite close, neighbor. Like many an indecisive king before him, the governor hopes to survive by trying to play both sides against each other, while distracting his own populace with ginned-up enemies.