PROLOGUE TWO: "JERICHO"
Excerpt from "An Overview of Panem" an anonymous rebel text authored in District 8 in the year 315HG.
During the Dark Days, the final book of the Great Mediator inspired thousands of rebels to abandon their previous lives and fight against the Capitol's rule. Estimates of the number of rebels killed in the First Great Rebellion (another name for the Dark Days) vary widely from source to source, but the truth is definitively known that the rebel side sustained much heavier casualties than the Capitol. As the twist for the second Quarter Quell so onerously (if slightly erroneously) declared, "Two rebels died for each Capitol citizen killed".
It is unsurprising the Great Mediator inspired such a revolt. The ideas of this database were crafted specifically to invoke rebellion, dealing with visions of the end of the world, with disease, war, and death. It is also the first place the lyrics of "The Hanging Tree", the anthem of the first rebellion, ever appeared. Some believe the anonymous author of the Mediator even wrote and composed the song himself.
Death and preoccupation with death make this period in Panemian history one of the most wrenching to study and even contemplate. Between the years 5BHG and 1HG, Panem experienced a frightful series of shocks: economic dislocation, political upheaval, and levels of crime and violence simply never seen before or after. The districts were held together only by the face of a common enemy, the Panemian Capitol, whose thirty-sixth president Cornelius Wayne used whatever means necessary to keep the districts in line. That was when the Hunger Games were created.
It is a common misconception that Panem was sectioned off into districts along with the creation of the Hunger Games, for the sole purpose of creating a centralized system for choosing tributes. It is indeed truthful that boundaries between districts were not nearly as well-defined or strictly patrolled before the year 1HG as they were after it, but to say the districts were not separate beforehand would be a historical falsehood. From the moment the United States of America collapsed on 27 October 1962 CE, president John F. Kennedy and his vice president Lyndon B. Johnson made it their first priority to fracture the shattered remains of the land once known as North America into something vaguely resembling the commonwealth of states it had seen previously. The first five districts were founded surrounding the Capitol, which was placed in the Rocky Mountains where it was offered natural protection from rising waters and outside threats. It was not until the year 9BHG, nearly two-hundred years later, that the Capitol and thirteen districts existed in the form a person living just before the Dark Days would recognize.
Following the Dark Days, the first decade of the Hunger Games era saw a considerable price inflation. The cost of grain, livestock, and dairy products rose sharply. Severe weather, a result of the nuclear conflict, made a serious situation utterly deplorable. Freak storms brought torrential rains, ruining the crops on which Panem's then-agrarian population relied. Since transportation was difficult, most people relied on food prepared in areas no more than a few hours' journey away, and many starved. With the assassination of President Cornelius Wayne in the year 8HG, Panem entered the long period of political upheaval that culminated in the rise of President Coriolanus Snow in the year 25HG. It is with his reign – or, by some definitions, that of his successor, Stinn Hawke – that early Panemian history can be said to begin.
Following is an account of the twelve districts of Panem, and how they have changed since the enactment of the Hunger Games.
DISTRICT ONE
Located in the abundant hills north of the Capitol, District 1 was always the wealthiest of the thirteen districts and continues to hold that distinction to this day. District 1 was one of the first three districts to develop an Academy for training tributes, and it received the largest sum of money via the Cordley Plan after the Third Great Rebellion. Its citizens are immediately recognizable by their angelic features, which existed even before the scientific advances that brought Panem to the place it is today; even without the artificial influence of human hands on developing human embryos the people of District 1 were known for their striking blond hair, blue eyes, and rugged features. Its population is largely split into two categories: those who mine for gemstones and work in factories (called the Lay) and those who work in more specialized industries like clothing and housing (called the Leta). Both groups hold considerable political influence in District 1 and both have provided spectacular Hunger Games tributes.
DISTRICT TWO
It is surprising to some students of Panemian history that District 2 was one of the first to face hardship after the Dark Days – an epidemic of typhoid fever that killed thousands. In the year 5HG, ten percent of District 2's population may have died between February and April alone. Then disease hit sheep and horses, the latter being the main form of transportation in District 2 outrepresenting even the car and train for several decades. District 2 began providing not only its official industry product of masonry but also Panem's peacekeeper force around the time of the second Quarter Quell, which it still provides in force today. There were great social consequences to this shift – throughout the remainder of the first Hunger Games century, many people abandoned their homesteads. In parts of the Canyon Sector and the District 2-5 borderlands, entire towns were abandoned. By the beginning of the third Hunger Games century, the great District 2 Migration had reached its conclusion, with most of the population settling in large cities with centralized systems of taxation and labor. District 2 was one of the first three districts to establish academies for training tributes, and it received the second largest sum of money via the Cordley reconstruction plan, second only to District 1.
DISTRICT THREE
District 3 has never fully recovered from the horrific epidemic that began within its borders at the tail end of the first Hunger Games century. It was during this time that passages from the Great Mediator concerning divine pestilence and death became popular once more, to the chagrin of the district's security forces. To none of the problems that stemmed from the epidemic did the government of District 3 have effective solutions; it was a completely dysfunctional populace for most of the second Hunger Games century. The three descendants of Ajax Rutherford who sat in the Justice Building of District 3 over the course of that century condemned speculators, who held stocks of grain and goods back until conditions were desperate and prices high. Popular discontent and paranoia ran rampant in District 3 during this time, and starving people focused their anger on the rich, attacking peacekeepers in some of the most horrifying displays of rebellion outside of three Great Rebellions. Rumors spread of a plot by the rich to kill the poor of District 3 by poisoning their food supplies – and with "evidence" collected by torture, many relatives of government members in District 3 were killed, beaten, or hit with heavy ransom charges. The people of District 3 remain violent toward peaceekepers, with designated hate groups devoted to attacking them, often publicly.
DISTRICT FOUR
The least eminent of the original three career districts, District 4 has seen great political turmoil in the three centuries since the enactment of the Hunger Games on the citizens of Panem. At the start of the second Hunger Games century, power found itself in the hands of the Burgundy family, an old-fashioned noble house who'd migrated there from District 1 about four decades prior. This happened because of a coup, in fact – the people were furious at not receiving money from the Cordley Plan, and fearing food riots and violence, the house of Burgundy struck down on 4's citizens with intense security measures, including strict quotas and curfews. In the second Hunger Games century, low cereal harvests, declines in meat and dairy production, and the lack of salt – which was used to preserve fish in those days – led to starvation in District 4. Today, it is considered to have a lower standing than many of the outlying districts, who have surpassed it in strength in terms of both district eminence and the fighting power of Hunger Games tributes. The fall of District 4 is one of the most curious chapters in Panem's history, and it is intensely studied by scholars and ordinary students alike today.
DISTRICT FIVE
In 105HG, Fox Sikorski, one of the most famous and admired figures in human history, won the Hunger Games and became an immortal symbol of patriotism. It is his victory that historians peg as entirely responsible for the high and eminent standing of District 5 in the Panemian economic and cultural climates today. In the 200s, important advances (made possible by increased funding in District 5's endeavors as a result of Mr. Sikorski's victory) were made in the production of nuclear and solar power, rocketing District 5 to the upper echelon of Panemian scientific advancement – even higher than District 4, previously known as one of the three most powerful districts. District 5 felt the effects of the nuclear Third Rebellion the least strongly of any of the upper districts, as it contained few population centers in those days and gave those possessing nuclear power little reason to attack it. In fact, it has remained historically neutral in political situations, giving few a reason to feel contempt toward District 5. Today its Canyon Sector is a popular destination resort, and its tourism industry thrives more so than any other district except 11, whose tropical sunshine attracts many Capitol relaxation seekers.
DISTRICT SIX
It is impossible to deny that District 6 has been an unpleasant place to live for much of our era. In the first part of the first Hunger Games century, Morphling was invented, and it ran rampant through District 6, directly leading to the collapse of the government and the rise of an entire class of young people so addicted to the drug they were willing to riot, cheat, and steal in order to get the money they needed to buy it. In the 300s, massive reforms were made in the way of stamping out the Morphling epidemic – it was ruining the people and stripping the district of its precious resources, which were going to merchants from other districts to pay for the drug. The government began to prosecute drug dealers vigorously and in 285HG sent a series of special envoys ordering foreign merchants to obey the laws that were necessary to safeguard the future of District 6. It is the most overpopulated district by far, containing three times as many people as the second most populous district, District 2. This has historically led to deplorable living and working conditions, encouraging starvation, disease, and death. Fear runs rampant in District 6, festering in the minds of 6's residents with each passing day there is no evident solution to the problems that plague it.
DISTRICT SEVEN
The biggest malady this district has ever encountered is the Blight, which seems to come once or twice each century to wreak havoc on the district's products and population. It first struck in the year 36HG, then again in 95HG, coinciding with the plague from three that was sweeping Panem and levying immense destruction at the time. There have also been outbreaks in 160HG, 200HG, and 274HG, laying varying levels of death. Mortality rates cannot be exactly specified, because population figures for the period before the great Panemian Census of the year 300HG do not exist in most cities outside of the Capitol and District 1. Only very rare documents such as the one listing the number of wrapping sheets and coffins for the dead provide the historian with palatable information on just how severely District 7 has been lashed over the centuries. In the early days of the Hunger Games, tributes from District 7 were usually the strongest outside of the careers because they specialized in axe work from an early age. In fact, District 7 was one of the first outlying districts to build a combat academy and today it is known for providing some of the strongest tributes the games have ever seen. The emblem of District 7, an axe and a hatchet crossed, has deep-running origins to the days of competing political identities in the early twentieth century CE. It is unsurprising that these ideologies still run rampant in District 7, with many subscribing to old-fashioned philosophical and even religious ideas. The Capitol has historically made little effort to quell these thought patterns, as they pose little harm.
DISTRICT EIGHT
It is noteworthy that, for such a historically rebellious district, the government of District 8 has functioned to an exemplary degree. Mayors, officials, and officiants ran the government in a more or less just way – in fact, District 8 will proudly tell you it was the first district to establish a full democracy again after the third Great Rebellion. People cared for the sick and buried the dead. In places like the Flax Zone, from which even physicians fled, people remained to help their fellow man in whatever way they could when straits were dire. District 8's population has grown the most sharply of any Panemian district other than 6, nearly doubling between the years 100HG and 300HG. This district is largely agrarian, and in taking their pastoral responsibilities seriously as well as their manufacturing responsibilities, some government officials have indeed performed actions that would be later condemned, including putting power in the hands of "deadbeat" rulers who did little to actually govern. Even the famously dysfunctional District 12, for the short time it existed, had a functioning government with competent Capitol-instituted figureheads. District 8 is a middle-class district whose citizens have largely Indian heritage; one of the two districts (along with 11) most of whose civilians share a nonwhite ethnic group. Overall, District 8 has seen great prosperity in the more recent days of the HG era and will likely continue its upward trajectory in the future.
DISTRICT NINE
What impact have outbreaks of disease had on District 9, the most agrarian and pastoral of Panem's districts? Fortunately for population scientists, District 9 has been conducting its own censuses for centuries, even before the Great Panemian Census of the year 300HG; we can see that the population of 9 directly rises and falls with the availability of grain, the only foodstuff most people living in the district ever consume. In fact, the average person in District 9 eats an average of three pounds of bread per day, roughly the same as a European peasant in the year 1800 CE. The district is so sparsely populated that it was not greatly affected by the Plague of Three nor the Third (nuclear) Rebellion, and has in fact often prospers while the rest of Panem suffers in some cruel twist of fate. District 9 has historically provided the fewest Hunger Games victors along with District 12 (which was destroyed in the year 105HG). District 9 is a relatively self-sustaining district that responds well to change with resilience, sensitivity, and tact.
DISTRICT TEN
The hot, dry climate of District 10 is harsh and tough, but the people of District 10 are an equally tough breed. They have well-weathered the various hurdles of life in outlying Panem over the last three centuries; the people of 10 have had to adapt to find new ways of doing things to survive. At first, District 10 provided only livestock, sending pork, steak, turkey, and other edible goods to the Capitol. They first expanded into beekeeping in the second Hunger Games century and they now specialize in all kinds of goods involving living creatures, from birds to snakes to exotic pets. There are large labs in District 10 that provide work to many in which muttations for the Hunger Games are engineered. District 10 also contains the most Fertilization Labs of any district and even the Capitol. The first human successfully produced in a factory setting, Adam Ward, was grown in the Coriolanus Lab in the south of this district. It is strange to many that this work is done so far from the Capitol, which is why the Capitol keeps such an intense overarching presence in District 10; it has the highest ratio of peacekeepers to civilians and, throughout much of history, has had multiple mayors and multiple Justice Buildings in order to keep a district so large in check.
DISTRICT ELEVEN
Despite the First Great Rebellion beginning in District 8, there is substantial historical evidence that the Great Mediator, the text that inspired the Dark Days, was first authored in District 11. Indeed, it has historically been considered a rebellious district; quelling these ideas is simply impossible in a district so large. District 11 is the largest of Panem's districts by area, and it is the only district whose citizens largely depend on food prepared more than a few hours' journey away. Virtually all of its civilians have dark skin, and deep-rooted histories of racism and sexism run through the history of this district; it also faces physical and metaphorical infrastructure challenges, from poor education to dirty living facilities to viciously homophobic governing figures. The high mortality rate of farmers throughout history has led some people in District 11 to join specialized guilds, preparing elaborate and fancy foods otherwise prepared in District 1 and the Capitol itself. For this reason, 11 cannot be considered among Panem's poorest districts, as a sizable portion of its populace lives above the poverty line in specialized guild work as well as beekeeping and animal keeping, an industry it shares with 10.
DISTRICT THIRTEEN
This district has the rockiest relationship with the Capitol. It was destroyed in the Hinge Year (the year between 1BHG and 1HG) but continued to exist in hiding for nearly an entire century, "playing dead" in exchange for the Capitol's ignorance and exemption from the Hunger Games. Following a coup in the year 105HG, though, the district's status as a still-living entity was brought to public attention, and after the nuclear destruction of District 12 it was forced to participate in the Hunger Games – which it has now done for more than two centuries. Though it has been deprived of its nuclear weapons and now specializes only in graphite collection, District 13 is one of Panem's wealthiest districts, kept appeased like a dragon demanding food lest it destroy one's village; many in 13 still know or claim to know how to assemble nuclear materials into the weapons that have destroyed humanity before, and the Capitol is careful to keep 13's leaders pleased lest they levy further destruction against Panem itself. Still, it is not exempt from the annual Hunger Games. However, it is allowed to train its tributes for the games and its academy receives even more funding from the Capitol than those of Districts 1 and 2. It is a little known fact that 13 received a small sect of the Cordley Plan money to help reconstruction after the Third Great Rebellion, a truth that was hushed up for years lest conflict emerge with District 4, who was furious at receiving none of the Cordley fund. Overall, 13 is an upper-class district with a relatively stable government despite tensions with the Capitol. It is a peculiar part of Panem with a peculiar history, making it a subject of note and curiosity for many a Panemian historian.