Recent History
Special Note of Thanks to Suzanne Collins for creating the Hunger Games! Anything you recognize belongs to her. Also to Galaxy842 for the initial outline of World Wide Districts, and for giving me permission to play in them.
World War III did not begin in the Middle East due to any of the perennial oil-related conflicts, but in Central Africa, for all of the natural resources of that nearly untapped continent. India was an initial major player in the area, sending investors who bought up the rights to a lot of terrain, revealing the true value of the assets available. China soon followed, and a price war escalated into various civil wars, sponsored by governments from all around the world. Peacekeeping efforts fell apart before they even got launched.
The war escalated out of Africa as retaliatory efforts between governments involved. China and the OPEC consortium, supporting their own claims to the areas, declared war on India and the United States, supporting local governments and purchase rights. Russia sided with China. Europe and the Americas sided with the US. Russia and Europe, remembering the devastation of World Wars I and II, declared a truce along their mutual borders, focusing their efforts outward through their allies.
Beyond Africa, the hardest hit were India and China, as the war soon embroiled not just their interests in African resources, but became entangled by their millennia of mutual differences. They invaded each other several times throughout the war. Casualties in these campaigns ran into the tens of millions. China induced the Middle East to invade India's western border, prompting Japan to invite the Americas to launch attacks on China's eastern borders by way of Japanese ports.
Throughout the rest of the world though, World War III was not fought by soldiers, but by hackers. The greatest targets were not military strongholds, but technological assets. Military technology, like military intelligence, could not keep pace with the competition. The only true military advantage became the possession of Weapons of Mutually Assured Destruction, resulting in several years of a worldwide standoff, punctuated by terrifying hordes of mutated creatures, one result of biological warfare that swept through animal populations.
Begun decades before the war, and continuing despite wartime delays, one civilian project became a symbol of hope for future peace and prosperity. Touted as the greatest space station to ever be built by mankind, the developers and promoters carefully avoided entangling this civilian project in the war. Launched in pieces from secret facilities all over the world, the enormous station was assembled in the Lunar-Terra First Libration Point. Once complete, a grand round of tourism was highly publicized.
Much less publicized was the fact that most of these tourists never came back home. Some even went so far as to hire lookalike actors to portray their return. The war ended abruptly with the rise of the Capital, as the world's elites took control of all utilities and municipal assets from afar. Declaring a new, consolidated government, they abandoned the myriad of former calendar systems, and established the new Unified Calendar, starting at Year 1 UC.
With all grids shut down, the results on Earth were transformatively devastating. Services came to a standstill. The first plague was civil unrest, promptly followed by rioting. Fires and crimes rampaged out of control. Then diseases began circulating, and the crippled health care system immunized their own workers and left everyone else outside locked doors. Population dwindled rapidly as civilization deteriorated. In the absence of proper care and upkeep, critical dams failed, bridges collapsed, and power plants went offline, or worse. A nuclear plant in Sweden was the first to blow. With several others in dangerous situations, complying with the Capital became the only viable option.
Around the world nations began capitulating, acknowledging the primacy of the new government, and begging for help. The first to do so were those previously categorized as third world countries and areas long accustomed to dynastic or imperialistic rule. Cultures least compatible with the new regime were formerly democratic, and were among the last to become compliant.
The Capital rapidly solidified its rule over the world. They arbitrarily created districts for their own convenience based more on geographic regions than prior political borders, though many local areas retained their existing names. Education, largely comprised of video lectures streamed from the Capital, became standardized around the world. All goods produced were required to pass through the Capital before going to another District, ensuring that sales to the Capital were cheaper and more desirable than exports between Districts. This also included digital works, ensuring the Capital maintained oversight and censorship on mass-produced entertainment.
The Capital also created several measures designed for mass pacification.
The first of these was the new Peacekeeper program, which enabled citizens to achieve economic advancement at a personal cost. Peacekeepers, once trained, were always assigned to another district every couple of years. This turnover created a division between peacekeepers and the residents of their assignments, hopefully reducing the complications of conflicting loyalties. After ten years, peacekeepers could retire to the district of their choice, with a retirement package large enough to invest into business rather than manual labor, or if they qualified for commission, remain in service in an officer capacity. Enlisted Peacekeepers could not marry; officers could but would transfer yet again immediately thereafter.
The second of these was the prodigy program, which could elevate someone, usually a child under twelve, directly into the Capital, as an indentured second caste citizen. All intellectual property created by the indent would belong to their Capital sponsor.
And thirdly was the creation of the Tessarae Games. Tessarae was created to allow students an income of their own, to help offset those household expenses that caused many prior cultures to put children into the workforce at a young age. Tessarae was a combined allotment of food, power, medicine and digital access. Any child who accepted tessarae was automatically enrolled in the Draft. Once each year, two draftees between twelve and seventeen would be reaped from each district to participate in the Games, and their results in the Games affected the amount of resources provided by each point of tessara for their District during the following year.
Tessarae specifics:
- Children can begin receiving tessarae upon attaining the age of competence, age seven.
- Children may receive one point of tessara per month for themselves and for each member of their family. Children may request that their family includes others beyond their parents and siblings, if that family member resides in their household.
- Children at age ten may request tessarae for family members who live in other households, such as grandparents across town.
- Children at age twelve may request tessarae for donation to worthy causes. The food, power and digital access go to the nonprofit organization.
- Children at age fourteen may declare a handfasting, and request tessarae for their spouse and members of their spouse's household.
- Children who receive tessarae also receive implanted contraceptives to ensure they do not cause needless drama by having children of their own before outgrowing the draft years.