APPENDIX III

Great University of Panem's Studies

Doctoral Thesis

As the Games' Will: A diachronic enquiry on the Victors and the history of the Hunger Games

Author: Ptolemy Everlock

Supervisor: Dr. Aemilia Thompson

A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Panem's History and Culture

in the

Department of National Studies

a.y. 81 AB

1. Introduction and inscription

Dedalus Wright was the first ever. Among all others, he was the legend no one dared to question or disturb, because he was the one example to every single survivor that came afterwards. As for his background, Dedalus came from an average-in-wealth family, did not own much, neither he needed to, and was a simple kid in the midst of all of Panem's children. Still, he managed to save himself from the Games, mostly because he possessed a sharp mind and practical skills. He demonstrated the first of these two traits right after the Hunger Games became a reality. A sister of his recounted in an interview with Capitol TV that, after the Treaty of Treason had been signed by the districts and its conditions revealed to the nation's citizens, the seventeen-year-old boy went straight to District 2's black market with the spare money he had saved from his past birthdays, hoping to find someone kind enough to exchange them with a dirty notebook. In an hour, he was back home with his "brand new" diary in his hands. On its pages – his sister told us – he wished to write down every piece of information or important detail he could gather from watching the Hunger Games unfold for the first time that July, just in case he would be forced to compete in them the following year. Moreover, Dedalus had two younger brothers of the age of fifteen and thirteen respectively, he must have thought that this diary could be put at good use, that it was a good idea, that it may have saved-

At the reaping for the first annual Hunger Games a woman with fluffy red hair and eyes yellow as those of a beast read his name off of a paper slip, calling him to the stage on which she was standing.

Clever enough to wanting to "prepare" for the Games, but alas, destiny stopped Dedalus from fulfilling his wish. However, fortunately for Dedalus, his practical skills came in handy for real. When the twenty-four tributes were thrown in the amphitheater used as the arena for the first ten years of the Games, most of the boys and girls present with him at the time had never even seen an actual weapon, let alone it being used properly by an instructor (and remember: tributes' training was introduced into the Games only about a decade later). When the gong sounded, Dedalus had gotten off the podium he was put on to run towards a knife that lay on the ground, looked at his left and noticed the female tribute from 8, frozen in fear and still on her podium – just as the majority of the other contestants, with the exception of the girl from 3, the boy from 4, the boy from 10 and the girl from 12. Dedalus was afraid, sure, he was scared to death, he had never used a knife, at least to kill somebody, but he wanted to go home to his siblings, to his mother, to District 2, to where everything was still the same. Crune Fells from District 8 was the first tribute ever to be killed in the Hunger Games. As Dedalus retrieved his knife that he had thrust into Crune's chest, nearly all tributes finally realized that it was all real and it was not going to stop until everyone was dead. A good amount of them had targeted Dedalus altogether, such as the girl from 3 and the boy from 10, and even the muscular Dente from District 4. Wasn't easy, no, defending himself from two to three tributes ganging up on him. But Dedalus possessed practical skills, and was able to dispatch of both Scada from 3 and Blade from 10 with just his knife. Dente opposed a little more resistance, but he couldn't hit Dedalus anyways a single time with his trident, as the latter seemed to avoid every strike with ease. So, when Dente tripped inadvertently when trying to stab his adversary and fell to the ground, Dedalus just brought down his knife and ran it through Dente's nape. From that point on, Dedalus' fight to victory progressively got less and less heated, defeating opponent after opponent, while others eliminated each other on their own, until only the boy from 2 and the daughter of a miner remained. Meadow Pratt, child of Ribb Pratt, leader of the rebel forces in District 12. Nobody in the audience had thought that it would be a fair fight between the two. Meadow seemed somewhat sick since she had entered the amphitheater, and continued on looking so throughout the whole Games, which is probably why she had hidden within the stands for most of them. When Dedalus found her, Meadow was lying on the ground, pale skin and vacant eyes, basically unable to respond to any stimuli. That poor thing couldn't even beg for mercy as Dedalus became the victor of the first Hunger Games ever. And so, it is Dedalus' name that was engraved on a gilded plaque that was hung in the Hall of Victors in Glory Avenue, one of the main roads in the Capitol – not Meadow's.

At first, Dedalus Wright was celebrated, idolized and worshipped, sure – after all, he was Panem's first champion. He even travelled to the Capitol each summer for the annual Games for quite some time after his win. However, he never seemed to properly enjoy what fate had blessed him with. Wealth, recognition and power were apparently not enough to bring back to life a young man who had gone through the experience he had hoped to avoid. For this reason, Dedalus kept away as much as he could from anything that reminded him of the days in the amphitheater – the whole Capitol City society included, where anyone would ask him questions and expect answers, just for the sake of satisfying their curiosity about the first tribute that lived through the bloody arena and that came out of it saved by the grace of the Capitol. Furthermore, victors that showed far more gratitude for being in Dedalus' place followed year after year: the perfectly beautiful boy from 1 who became an actor, the menacing bull from 2 that outshone Dedalus in popularity and recognition, even the desperate little girl from 4 that turned into a freak-show after she won her Games. Therefore, in twenty years or so, Dedalus was just a rusty memory to most citizens of the nation – a glorious one, sure, but still just a memory.

Still, there is something that we have to give Dedalus credit for. After the arena, the Games, Scada, Meadow, after everything, he hadn't forgotten the diary he had bought earlier on, no. When he got back in District 2, two weeks after Dedalus had taken the crown, it was laying on his bed, just where he had left it the day of the reaping. Even though he had already conquered victory, Dedalus had certainly not lost his wit and observant eye. The diary didn't go unused, and Dedalus readjusted its purpose to that of a database of all the victors, all the arenas and all the Games that followed his (a lot of them, at least), filling these blank pages with annotations, identikits, comments and all sorts of signs a black pen was able to produce. If Dedalus really had a concern about his brothers being actually reaped for the Games is not known, as this remains just a speculation for most historians, but this peculiar "prediction" eventually became truth. Unfortunately, they both perished, the eldest during the 4th Hunger Games and the youngest in the 5th, with the latter volunteering to participate to the Games. However, Dedalus' diary is still an historical document of immense relevance, primarily utilized much later on by the training academies in District 2 after they were built and put in work.

Secondly, it seems now clear to us that Dedalus' diary is the first historiographical source that we will encounter in this collection of the deeds, lives and, if you will, the "miracles" of the victors who are the protagonists of this work.

This is why our first dedication goes to Dedalus.

Our first thanks go to Dedalus.

To Dedalus, the first, followed by the others.

To Dedalus, first builder of the legendary Panem story.

To Dedalus. Still to him.