Like most bad things, you can blame the current condition of the United States squarely on the Nazis.
In WW2, as the German advance near Stalingrad faltered, Hitler unleashed his secret weapons. From the nightmarish depths of the Buchenwald, dying Gypsy witches had shared an ages old blood curse with their torturers. Vampirism. The Wehrmacht, in an attempt to bolster it's fighting prowess, turned thousands of it's troops into bloodsucking monsters. Nightmarish myth became horrid reality, and Stalingrad fell almost overnight. But the Vampires weren't the only monsters waiting to be pulled out of the dark.
Nicholas, the Russian Czar, turned to demonic magics as well, cursing many of his troops with lycanthropy. England managed to make contact with the farie realms, bargaining for their return, in exchange for power. Even the surviving Jews were able to turn to their kabbalist mystics and summon Golems to their defense.
In America, we didn't have the luxury of cultural goblins to drag out of the shadows. We were a land of immigrants. Instead, we hunted down the nastiest creatures we could find...and gave them to the scientists. They tried to splice combinations of creatures into our soldiers to mitigate the worst side effects of what were were doing. Largely, they succeeded. The results were wildly unpredictable, but still very useful, and without the virulent properties of the German or Russian approach. At the end of the war, the survivors of the American super-human projects were allowed to return to their civilian lives. We thought that would be the end of it.
Then they started having kids.
It's only been three generations since the second world war, but there has been so much crossbreeding amongst the descendants of the super-human programs that each super-human born exhibits entirely unique, and entirely dangerous, powers. Even with the threat of an expansionist Russian Empire, and vampire covens travelling here from the old world, the most dangerous threats we face are domestic. Denver has been conquered by a shape shifting monster called The Grim. Austin has been leveled by another named the Roaring Beast. In light of these threats, and others, congress has approved the Precinct program.
Certain super humans, determined to be capable, driven individuals, have been offered a chance at a kind of feudal leadership over many of our major cities. They do not answer to the civilian leadership of their designated cities. Their only purpose is to keep control over their territory, against all comers, and keep the bloodshed to a minimum.
Last week, you were invited to help form the Precinct of New Corinth, North Carolina.