Sanctuary City

Sanctuary City
Country	United States
State	New Hampshire
County	Rockingham
Settled	1630
Incorporated (Portsmouth)	1653
Incorporated (city)	1849
Reformed as Sanctuary City	September 10, 1985
Core city	Portsmouth/"Sanctuary City"
Satellite cities	List of satellite cities Derry Salem Epping Chester Raymond Candia Hampton Seabrook Plaistow Atkinson Newmarket Rye North Hampton Kittery, Maine
Area
• City	800 sq mi (2,060 km2)
• Land	695 sq mi (1,801 km2)
• Water	100 sq mi (259 km2)  12.6%
• Urban	285.10 sq mi (738.41 km2)
• Metro	410.27 sq mi (1,062.59 km2)
Elevation	70 ft (20 m)
Population  (2010)
• City	20,000,000
• Density	25,000/sq mi (9,700/km2)

Sanctuary City, officially called The Sanctuary Area of Portsmouth, Exeter, and Derry and sometimes referred to as The Greater Sanctuary Area, is a metropolitan area located in the USA on Earth-0. As the home of the largest population of Meta-Humans on Earth-0, it is a significant region with colorful recent history.

History

Portsmouth, New Hampshire

Settlement and Incorporation

The area that would be settled as Portsmouth was first explored by Europeans in 1603. As the Piscataqua River forms a good natural harbor, the area was of interest to European settlers, and was settled in 1630 by European colonists under the name "Strawbery Banke" due to the amount of wild strawberries growing in the area.

As a European colony, Portsmouth was a beneficiary of the Triangle Trade, and Enslaved Africans were imported to the colony (with records dating back to at least 1645) - these imported slaves were key to the colony's prosperity. Strawbery Banke was incorporated in 1653, and named "Portsmouth" in honor of the colony's founder, who was from Portsmouth, Hampshire.

American Revolution

In 1774, when the American Revolution was brewing, Paul Revere rode to Portsmouth to warn the city that the Royal Navy was coming to capture the city. The risk of invasion from the sea led to the Patriot government moving the captial of the region from Portsmouth in-land to Exeter. As a sea port, Portsmouth was a key location for the American revolutionaries to receive supplies from their French allies.

African Americans were key to defending to defending Portsmouth during the revolutionary war, and as such a group of enslaved African Americans from Portsmouth wrote to the state legistlature of New Hampshire in 1779 to abolition slavery on those grounds - slavery would not be banned in New Hampshire until 1857.

19th Century

The 1807 embargo of American trade with Britain caused financial disruption in Portsmouth, as several local businessmen went bankrupt due to New England's reliance on trade with Canada. Portsmouth was relatively uninvolved in the War of 1812, but did host privateers.

Portsmouth was incoporated as a city in 1849.

Thanks to being a key port and shipbuilding city, Portsmouth was a wealthy city in the 1800s, leading to much of its downtown core consisting of examples of Colonian, Georgian, and Federal style houses. Due to fires in the early 1800s, the city established a fire district that required buildings within its boundaries be built from brick with slate roofs, leading to much of the area's distinctive style.

Portsmouth went into decline with the Industrial Revolution, as focus switched from its port to industrial mill towns located further inland than the city.

Early 20th Century

During World War II, Portsmouth Municipal Airport was converted for military use. By 1956, the airport became Pease Air Force Base, which housed nuclear bombers during the Cold War. The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was also a key base during the Cold War, being responsible for the construction of significant US Submarines during the period.

As with many other cities, Portsmouth benefitted from mid-20th century federal urban renewal projects, with funds being particularly focused on the North End area due to its high Italian-American population leading to it being perceived as a poor, overcrowded area and a significant fire hazard. Approximately 300 families were displaced due to this project.

Meta-Human Sanctuary

With the rise of the so-called "Meta-Human Crisis", many areas in the US (especially in the south) became unsafe for Meta-Humans to reside in. As such, a mass migration of Meta-Humans occurred, with many travelling both to states that were more permissive towards Meta-Humans. New Hampshire was one of these states, and as such saw many Meta-Humans (and their families) travelling to it, leading to a significant population boom in the state. Due to its position as a port and relatively undeveloped land compared to places like Boston and New York City, Portsmouth saw a particularly notable increase of new residents, and began to expand south and westwards into the rest of Rockingham County. Alongside this migration, the area also saw a significant increase in its Italian American population as organizations such as The Committee took interest in the exploiting burgeoning Meta-Human population for their own profits. The relative safety of the Portsmouth area led to many colloquially calling it the "Sanctuary area".

As the Meta-Human crisis reached a boiling point, several Meta-Human political groups found their roots in the area, such as the Crimson Tide, which emerged from the Meta-Human communities seeking to protect themselves from outside communities within the Sanctuary area (and criminal organizations such as the Ratti Crime Family), and supremacist groups such as the Meta-Human Liberation Army.

With tensions at a high as 1980s began, both federal and New Hampshire lawmakers recognized that the bureaucratic situation in the Sanctuary area was untenable, and both began independent processes to help control the situation. Federally, the process of forming H.O.M.E.L.A.N.D. and the Meta-Human Response Division was started, with lawmakers in Washington DC believing the best solution to handling Meta-Human tensions was to take a firm stance on policing Meta-Humans. More locally, the state of New Hampshire began the process of reforming Rockingham County into the Sanctuary Area of Portsmouth, Exeter, and Derry, adapting much of the county administration into a metropolitan city administration, with its own mayor, city council, and district councils. This process would not be complete until 1984, and was not formally completed until the declaration of the formation of Sanctuary City on September 10, 1985, where the first mayor of the city Brian Blake accepted the key to the city and opened City Hall to the public in the Administrative District (the area that was previously known as Exeter, New Hampshire).

Crimson Tide Riots

In the early 1990s, Meta-Human tensions reached a breaking point, and a series of riots broke out across the United States (including the Goldway Riots in Chicago, the Golden Gate Riots in San Francisco, and the Oppenheimer Riots in New York). Sanctuary City was no exception to this, with a series of peaceful demonstrations from the Crimson Tide turning violent as the city government responded violently to the perceived threat of the Meta-Human demonstrators. Thanks to the size of the Meta-Human population in Sanctuary City, the riots left much of the city ruined, and lasted longer than other riots in other cities, only ending with the event the media dubbed "The Siege of District F", where much of the leadership of the Crimson Tide was killed in a police action by the MRD.

In the wake of the riots, the United States Government established the Meta-Human Registration Act, requiring all children to be screened for Meta-Gene activity at the age of 5 and any adults to register their Meta-Gene expressions or be revoked of their citizenship under the crime of treason. This act also massively increased the budget of the MRD, and expanded much of their legal powers, including granting the full legal authority to intervene in any crimes deemed to be a risk to Meta-Human tensions.

Reconstruction

With much of Sanctuary City damaged or ruined by the Crimson Tide riots, the city and federal governments earmarked significant funding towards reconstruction efforts, seeking to turn the city into a financial centre thanks to much of its industry being ruined in the riots. It was during this period of reconstruction that the Financial District was built proper, taking up much of the land that formed the residential district of the first wave of Meta-Human migrants to the area. Much of the city's reconstruction contracts were fufilled by UP.

With their leadership broken, and much of their organization scattered, the Crimson Tide ended up in direct conflict with the Ratti Crime Family, engaging in a bloody gang war that ended with both organizations falling at the end, with a new Crimson Tide arising from the remains of both and joining the ranks of The Committee.

In response to both the measures imposed by the Meta-Human Registration Act and the loss of their homes in the Sanctuary City Reconstruction Project, many Meta-Humans and their families retreated into the Industrial District and into the sewers and tunnels below the city, forming the community known as The Hollows.

Recent History

Thanks to the city government managing to court much of the Big Five, Sanctuary City saw a period of economic prosperity in the late 90s and 00s, with many corporations moving to the city to leverage its large Meta-Human population. It was during the early 2000s that the Sanctuary City Meta-Human Response Division was embroiled in a corruption scandal.

At some point in either the late 1990s or early 2000s, Monica Beaufort attempted to hide with her two children (Orion and Stephanie) after taking them from The Collective. This plan was ultimately unsuccessful, with their father, Ken Thompson finding them there and bringing them back into his custody.

After a lab incident that modified her body, Jo Endicott fled from her hometown in Boston and took up residence in the Hollows, where she later formed the Anarchs, becoming a thorn in the side of the Crimson Tide.

Lisa Dawkins moved to Sanctuary City in 2015, as the Valkyrie Labs Particle Accelerator was being constructed, the superhero Speedrunner was first seen in the city around the same time.

In 2016, Orion Thompson was living in Sanctuary City after escaping from his father, it was in the city that he first met Aiden Grayson.

Points of Interest

Residential District

Key locations in the Residential District include:

• The ruins of "District F"

Financial District

Mostly rural land prior to the population explosion of Sanctuary City, the Financial District is the strongest example of Sanctuary City's architectural character. Made primarily of modern skyscrapers, the Financial District's skyline rivals that of other mega cities across the world, such as New York, London, and Shanghai. Being mostly zoned for financial use, few people live within the Financial District, but some private residences are present within the area.

Key locations in the Financial District include:

• Archeon Incorporated Campus
• UP Tower
• Hoyokazi Tower
• Futures Tower
• Sanctuary City University
• Valkyrie Research

Administrative District

Formerly Exeter, New Hampshire, what would become the Administrative District hosted much of Rockingham County's county administration before the area was reformed into Sanctuary City, making it a natural fit for the metropolitan area's administrative core. Unlike much of Sanctuary City the administrative district maintains much of its pre-Sanctuary character, with the main notable break from this being the MRD Headquarters, which rises above much of the surrounding area.

Key locations in the Administrative District include:

• City Hall
• The M.R.D. Spire

Notes

• Sanctuary City is the primary location setting for Earth-0, and as such has a lot of happening in it.
• A population of 20 million places Sanctuary City as having a larger population than the New York Metropolitan Area, but not larger than the Combined New York Statistical Area.
• The date of the Portsmouth/Rockingham area being reformed in Sanctuary City officially, September 10, 1985, is the official release date for Uncanny X-Men #200 (titled "The Trial of Magneto!"), a Marvel comic famous for a key legal decision involving Mutants, from whom Meta-Humans take much inspiration.
• Sanctuary City has several sports teams, these include:
  • Sanctuary City Sentinels (Baseball)
  • Sanctuary City Sunfish (American Football)
  • Basketball Response Division (Basketball)
  • SCFC (Association Football)