For the last twenty-three years, Panem has been in a state of flux.
First, there were the Dark Days: the revolt of Thirteen, stoking the flames of ire in the rest of the Districts. One by one, each District fought back against the Capitol - rioting in the streets, rampant theft and tumultuous assaults that lead to an ever-rising death count for three straight years. In the third year, when the chaos was at its worst, the Capitol reached a breaking point - the acting President, Ellis Theodred Hellebore, made the call to drop the bombs on the first District to rebel - Thirteen, a former jewel overtaken by treachery.
When the smoke cleared, rubble was all that remained.
Over the next few years, efforts would be made to restore a sense of normalcy through the rest of Panem; envoys were sent to the Districts where siege was still present, beginning in Two, whose acquiescence was quick and earned them the Capitol's favor. One and Four followed soonafter, and restructuring began. Districts Six and Ten were the last to be brought back into the fold, with the children of dead or incarcerated rebels continuing to sew dissent through underground movements in each.
During this time, Hellebore came to understand that the fruitfulness of Thirteen's rebellion had not come from Thirteen itself - but rather a mole inside the Capitol. He would spend the next five months interrogating his ambassadors and envoys, Capitol citizens whose mobility and relative wealth gave them enough presence to be complicit. Six executions would be carried out, beginning with his own Minister of Defense, Ivory Vanderheim, and ending with the appointed Head Peacekeeper in Six - a native of District Thirteen itself - Veronika Verduin.
After six years of tenuous rule, the fragmented Districts once more coalesced into a united Panem. A new Panem. But not one lacking for rage or vengeance - and thus, the Hunger Games began. it was decreed that, in order to provide tribute to the Capitol for their guilt, each of the twelve districts of Panem would send forth two children between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in a contest of death. The contest would be broadcast across Panem in order to convey the violence and anger wrought by uprising - and to remind the districts that no crime can ever be without punishment. The sole victor, living only for their strength and valor, would stand as a symbol of the Capitol's mercy and favor to be showered with wealth and provided for so long as they drew breath.
While the Games were at first taken to with shock, horror and disgust by the District's citizens, they became a customary tradition over time; rebellious attitudes began to cool, and the deathmatch that was the Hunger Games grew to be accepted as normal. However, this was not to last; during the year of the Twenty-First Hunger Games, political tension was brewing in the Capitol, and it culminated in the form of an assassination attempt. Doctor Valentin Verduin, Veronika Verduin's son, poisoned three members of Hellebore's current presidential cabinet in an incident that has since come to be known as the 'Cabinet Poisonings'. While two of the assassination victims died, the third - a young man by the name of Coriolanus Snow - survived, and formed a truce with Panemian Secretary Maryse Delacroix to consolidate power for governmental reform.
During the year of the Twenty-Third Hunger Games, Delacroix and Snow set in place a plan to oust President Hellebore from office by placing Valentin Verduin, who was also Maryse's brother, in the position of Head Gamemaker. But while this scheme was successful in the ways that were intended, it also had unforeseen consequences; anti-government sentiment throughout Panem began to peak in Six, Seven and Ten, and Verduin's attempts to rig the Games in favor of District Seven's outspoken and dissident tribute Elowyn Eiken became public knowledge. As such, there's been a resurgence of conflict across the country - a resurgence that continues to grow in unexpected ways...
