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Three hundred years in the future, cultures and provinces have dissolved into a single nation, ruled by a sovereign governing body known as Tartarus. The ideal citizen is nondescript and doesn't pay attention to anything except their own life and their duties in it. While not brainwashed in the typical sense, citizens of Earth are stripped of their most basic identities. Numbers are assigned in place of names and all major life choices in an individual's life are made by Tartarus. History is outlawed. Memories, at least those not approved, are discouraged. Citizens are constantly reminded that Tartarus is good, kind, and necessary, and are reminded to the rules of the new regime… and the punishment for breaking them. A few people do break the rules, however. When someone commits a serious offense against Tartarus, they're given a name.
Their name and face are plastered everywhere so no one will forget it: every social media, every billboard, every TV advert. Everywhere, so no one will forget it. This makes them an immediate outcast amongst all law-abiding citizens and severs their connections to numbered people. Most of the named individuals are thrown into prison camps, but a few have made their escape and are living not-so-quietly under the radar. A rebellion begins to rise from these named outcasts and in the midst of politics and war, blooms love and hope and a thirst for autonomy. With a taste of blood in their mouths and a scent of freedom in the air, the named ones must make a decision to flee from Tartarus or strike for the independence they have longed for once and for all.
LORE
The Living Wage
It's currently estimated that only approximately 3% of the Tartarus world population is educated past secondary school. While all citizens of Tartarus are required to attend school through secondary school, giving them basic literacy, math, science, art, and music, only those that prove to be exceptional go on to become further educated in education districts, like Mistmill's Southern Wall.
Those not educated are not permitted to work, as robots and technology take care of most uneducated labour jobs. Instead, uneducated people are given what is called a 'living wage.' A living wage is a monthly allowance given per family unit by Tartarus for their survival. The living wage is hardly enough to live luxuriously, but allows for uneducated people to live comfortably-- including buying electronics, meals, and entertainment. Though individuals are welcome to spend their living wage however they see fit, saving is incredibly difficult, so most live payment day to payment day.
Hard money does not exist. All money is digital and transactions can be performed either using a card or the banking microchip that is available for installment in an individual's palm.
The City of Mistmill
Designated living sector #2231, or Mistmill, is a large city that is built both up and out. Though Earth's population has continued to shrink and age since the turn os 2200, Mistmill remains busy and bustling as ever. It is a hub for business, trade, commerce, and education for those considered good enough by Tartarus to receive it. Though the city itself is surrounded by barren, toxic wasteland that has been uninhabitable for years, Mistmill is bright and cheery. The city host endless entertainment options for those living with the 'living salary', whether it's a quiet drink with a special someone or dancing the night away with hundreds of other partygoers in one of the many night clubs. The vibrant life, thriving under millions of neon lights is moving twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.
There is an underlying hum of life going on in the downtown of the city, drenched in hundreds of people who want to be noticed and are looking for the next big thrill. From the small, elite clubs to huge dance halls, Mistmill has something for everyone. The only question is: where do you fit in?
Meanwhile, the southern half of the city is closed off to most citizens as it is the educational district. Only those with special access are allowed to venture past the southern wall to be educated. The northern arch of the city is reserved for city-mandated housing. While no one is allowed to buy and sell houses, apartments are granted by Tartarus to each family on a case-by-case basis. Large families receive larger accommodations. Only those who are educated and not living on the living salary are given the best housing. Meanwhile, technology floods every corner of a citizen's life, from high-tech phones to light-speed monorails for travel to televisions that enthrall the senses with taste and touch, to bartending robots. Not a speck of a person's life goes untouched by electronics, gadgets, and gizmos. The Mistmill slogan has always been: "If you should do it, why not do it with technology of the future."
Nature centers and zoos exist throughout the city that give people an opportunity to walk through groomed gardens to enjoy nature as it once was. Examples of nature out in the city streets are few as decorative nature has become a fad of the past. Some species of animals have adapted quite well to the city life, including rats, small birds, wild cats, and other small mammals. Pets are uncommon, but some people still keep them.
Other cities like Mistmill exist around the Earth. They are isolated instances of large cities with miles of wasteland between. Monorails and hover-trains connect the cities for denizen travel, though it is extremely rare and difficult for an individual to leave their Tartarus designated living sector to visit another. A passport is required for all citizens wishing to travel to other living sectors, though Tartarus grants very few.
Tartarus
Though history books and history classes are illegal now, the oldest of the previous generation were alive when the world's political leaders, cultures, and sovereign natures slowly collapsed inward and fell into the hands of a single governing body known once as Partheon. Partheon, officially founded in 2292, was a socially mute organization comprised of the world's most brilliant minds and wealthy individuals: mathematicians, physicists, musicians, artists, chemists, politicians… They were famous. They were heroes. They were highly revered, more than any other celebrity and one night, they all disappeared, but not until much later.
Even those who lived through it couldn't explain how or why the world collapsed in on itself the way it did. Perhaps it was just too heavy and crazy to carry on the way it always had. Perhaps it had all been planned by some greater powers and all the people were too dug into their smart phones and televisions to care. Either way, countries began to dissolve, one by one, and their ownership was tossed into the hands of Partheon. There was no violence. There were no riots. There were no backlash, no outcries, no protests. It was just like one night everyone went to bed a citizen of their country, and woke up the next morning a citizen of Partheon.
Little changes came first and they were good: health care, a distribution of necessity wealth like water and adequate food, entertainment. Only the best, most intelligent and physically suited individuals were rewarded with a career and education, while the rest were supplied with an annual 'living salary': enough financial means to live comfortably (though not lavishly) without working. The leaders and minds behind Partheon fostered business, settled ancient disputes, and instilled security to nearly every corner of their far reaching power as they continued to rise in stardom. Religion collapsed in on itself and became archaic, sexism, racism, homophobia, and other social triggers eventually were bred out of the population.
Then, Pantheon's leaders disappeared.
In their stead, Partheon was rebranded Tartarus and it continued its operations without a spokesperson or human face to their actions. No one knew who ran Tartarus, people only knew that it ran… day in, day out, Tartarus' great cogs continued to turn. They put soldiers on the street to maintain order. They made citizens get passports to travel outside of their designated living sector. They took away names and instead replaced them with numbers. Things changed in grand scheme, but Tartarus kept digital devices in the hands of their people and no one seemed to notice. Pacified with their things… their electronics… their devices… their foods, the numbered people lived on quite happily, ignorant to the complete lack of life they truly lived.
Numbered Individuals
By far the largest population group, the numbered individuals are those who are given numbers as identification. They are the rule-followers, they are those who do as they are told by Tartarus and bumble through life safely and securely. Though they may choose to give themselves a nickname by which their friends and family may call them, they are to only be addressed as their 9 digit number by city officials, soldiers, and strangers. Every individual's 9 digit code is unique to them, and may contain a combination of letters and numbers. No one has publicly shared how or why numbers are assigned as they are, as they are not done so alpha-numerically. Every individual, upon their day of birth, is given a generated number in the form of XXX-XXX-XXX. This number cannot be changed and there are no recorded examples of an individual's number changing throughout his or her lifetime.
The laws of Tartarus are very public and newspapers, billboards, and television commercials will give brief reviews of these laws, why they are necessary, and the punishments for breaking them. Rumors have continued to circulate different communities about what happens to a person when they break a law and are caught... none of them are good.
Named Individuals
Though the world's populations have been mostly ground down into a uniform paste, there are pockets of rebels and lawbreakers who exist throughout the lands... they are called named ones because once they are deemed a threat or a law-breaker by Tartarus, their number is assigned a name. How names are chosen appears, again, to be random. Named individuals immediately have their picture, their name, and their number plastered all over the earth's cities. They are outcasted by the law-abiding society and are hunted mercilessly my Tartarus officials and soldiers.
Resistance groups exist, though due to limited resources and members, they struggle to dig their heels into the ground against Tartarus, so their goals are usually less about fighting back and more about surviving.
Recently, Coyotes have been making a large up-swinging in the underground named market as individuals who can help named people get to different living districts for safety, though these trips have proven incredibly dangerous and difficult as Tartarus pursued named individuals doggedly. Once captured, no one is sure what happens to named individuals. All everyone knows is that they don't ever come back.
Art property of their respective artists. Coding by the wonderful @WhisperingWillows
This thread is for reading up on the lore for Outnumbered. Interested players may chat and ask questions here, too.
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