Increasingly severe drought along the North American Front Range over a period of several years, combined with severe beetle infestation, created a massive issue with dead and decaying forest directly abutting several major cities. When a massive storm spawning dozens of EF-5 tornadoes struck, decimating local infrastructure and igniting several forest fires, local first responders were helpless to respond when the firestorms crossed from rural to suburban to urban areas. Hundreds of square miles were reduced to cinders, with only certain patches of construction intact.
In the aftermath, short-sighted federal planners wrote the region off as a total loss, perhaps overly influenced by Garreau's "Nine Nations of North America" and their mental image of the region as part of an "Empty Quarter". Federal authority withdrawn, and state government nowhere to be found, the survivors banded around whatever source of stability was to be found close at hand.
As the respective power bases of the Militia and the University coalesced, the leaders of each exchanged envoys, fearful of the possibility of anarchy and desolation should the nascent factions come to warfare.
Out of necessity, common history and heritage, and a desire to flip the metaphorical bird to the doubters by surviving against the odds, the officers' cadre and the university's faculty agreed to form a Supreme Regency Council, which would rule by decree in the name of the vaguely-charismatic but generally powerless Nicky G until such time as the elitist ivory-tower pinkos and paranoid gun-toting nutjobs could compose a constitution acceptable to both.
The name "Adlera Magna" was adopted by the Supreme Regency Council after several hours of debate, arrived at as a compromise between Colonel Zimmermann, a German-American militia leader fond of eagle-based imagery, and the head of the Classics Department, Professor Visona. No actual Roman inspiration was intended by the adoption of this name, or indeed, any other use of Latin.
The nominal ruler, Nicky G, had this proclamation to make to the assembled survivors:
"Under the protection of the Terran Alliance, and with that good ol' pluck, hearty determination, and can-do spirit that our people are known for - not to mention a solid grounding in the liberal arts and the sciences, natural and applied - and, of course, our non-specifically spiritual Heaven-given right to bear arms - I am confident that we will rise above this and and any other inevitable future disasters."
After taking a deep breath to recover from that sentence, he followed with:
"All Hail Adlera Magna!"
The crowd, after deciding that he was probably done speaking, applauded politely but unenthusiastically, and soon returned to their thankless work of looting the burned-out ruins for lost jewelry and not-too-thawed-yet hamburger patties.
