District

**Districts** were self-contained subdivisions spread across Panem, the nation that rose from the ashes of North America. For seventy-five years after the First Rebellion, twelve of the districts were recognized as operational by the Capitol, while District 13 was told to be destroyed during the closing days of the war (in reality having secretly seceded as an independent nation-state as part of a separate peace with the Capitol). Following the Second Rebellion, District 13 was reintegrated into Panem's political structure.

## Function

Each of the districts were responsible for producing, procuring, or refining goods in a particular industry as dictated by the Capitol, with the vast majority of said goods being shipped to the Capitol to fuel the hedonistic and lavish lifestyles of the city's populace. Each district provided something different to the Capitol; for example, District 12 provided coal, District 11 provided agricultural produce, District 7 provided lumber, and District 4 provided seafood. District citizens had little freedom to choose careers outside of their district's designated industry. Free markets outside of the Capitol, such as the Hob in District 12, were illegal, though some grey market exchange is tolerated, and District 12 itself did have a merchant sector that provided goods. With all major industries privately owned by wealthy Capitol families under state oversight, Panem operated as a semi-feudal fascist state. All trade and commerce between the districts was generally forbidden, as most of the districts' produced goods were sent to the Capitol. Welfare levels varied significantly and were often dependent on the goods it produces; some districts, such as 10, 11, and 12, were far more impoverished than wealthier districts like 1, 2, and 4, though no district was nearly as wealthy as the Capitol itself. Following the restructuring of Panem after the Second Rebellion, the districts were allowed to diversify their economies as a rebuilt District 12 opened a medical facility.

All of the districts were subject to the unrelenting will of the authoritarian Capitol and had no influence concerning the national politics of Panem beyond their individual territories. As such, the local government of the individual districts was controlled by one mayor and one Head Peacekeeper each. Peacekeeper forces composed of local, foreign, and Capitol-sourced soldiers overseeing law enforcement. Mayors were selected by the Capitol and served for thirty years at a time unless the mayor died.

Following the implementation of the Treaty of Treason, all inter-district travel and communications were banned as a means of isolating the districts from one another. As such, the districts retained very little interactions with one another and each one developed a unique culture unaffected by the others. Information on the other districts was similarly heavily restricted amongst the basic citizenry, beyond knowledge of the other districts' industry in relation to the Capitol.

## Industries and Relations

### District 1

District 1's industry was manufacturing luxury items for the Capitol. Due to the nature of its industry, District 1 was the wealthiest district, with the only wealthier place being the Capitol itself. Prostitution was rampant here. It was a Career District, where tributes often trained for years to compete in the Hunger Games. It was one of the Capitol's most favoured districts and was not an outlying district. 12 of the 75 victors of the Hunger Games stemmed from District 1.

### District 2

District 2's industry was masonry, but it also manufactured weaponry, made trains, and supplied the nation's Peacekeepers. The main military complex in the district was known as the Nut. Citizens of District 2 were sometimes called "the pets" of the Capitol. They were the biggest supporters of the Capitol and were therefore pampered and given many extra conveniences, though professional life was still extremely difficult. They were one of the three Career districts, and like District 1 and 4, children in their district underwent extensive combat and survival training to participate in the Hunger Games, which its citizens considered a great honor. 13 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 2.

### District 3

District 3's primary industry was general electronics of many types, though it was known for also making various mechanical products such as automobiles and firearms. Their tributes were skilled with electronics and engineering. 4 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 3.

### District 4

District 4's industry was fishing; thus, most residents had experience using nets and tridents, making fishhooks from scratch, swimming, and identifying edible sea life. It was a Career district, alongside District 1 and 2, and notable victors from this district are Finnick Odair, Mags, and Annie Cresta. Finnick was an important ally of Katniss Everdeen in the Quarter Quell. 11 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 4.

### District 5

District 5's industry was power production, which is emphasized by the presence of a large hydroelectric dam in the district. Unethical scientific experiments were conducted in this district after District 13 separated itself from the Capitol. Foxface, a clever tribute nicknamed by Katniss in the 74th Hunger Games, was from District 5. 5 of the 75 victors stemmed from District

### District 6

District 6's industry was transportation. In the 75th Hunger Games, two of the past winners ended up becoming morphling addicts, and this was a common issue there. There were many black markets and strict peacekeepers. 4 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 6.

### District 7

District 7's industry was lumber and many of its residents had experience with hatchets, axes, saws, and other tree cutting tools. District 7 children began work at age 10. Katniss and Peeta noted they had to travel through District 7 to get to the Capitol. 3 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 7.

### District 8

District 8's industry was the production of textiles, and they had two factories dedicated to making Peacekeeper uniforms. It was the first district to rebel after Katniss Everdeen spurred the revolution after the 74th Hunger Games. The rebellion worsened conditions for residents. Some, including Bonnie and Twill, escaped. However, Bonnie and Twill never made it to safety in District 13. 5 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 8.

### District 9

District 9's industry was grain. There were large numbers of farmland for the production of grain. Barley Mayes, a controversial tribute from the 61st Hunger Games, was a District 9 citizen. 5 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 9.

### District 10

District 10's industry was livestock. Its marriage rituals were similar to that of District 4's. In the 74th Hunger Games, Katniss named the boy from District 10, Terry, "the boy with the bad leg," as he was crippled. Katniss and Peeta had to travel through District 10 also to get to the Capitol. It was one of the absolute poorest districts. 3 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 10.

### District 11

District 11's industry was agriculture; orchards of various fruits, fields of grain, and cotton surrounded the district. Almost everything grown was shipped directly to the Capitol, leaving little for its residents. As such, it was one of the poorest districts in Panem, second only to District 12. In addition, it was also one of the districts where the Peacekeepers were the strictest, with a fortified wall surrounding the district. Ironically, this directly resulted in its residents being malnourished and underfed despite its focus on agriculture. Rue and Thresh were notable tributes. 6 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 11.

### District 12

District 12's industry was coal and was located somewhere near what was the Appalachian Mountains. The district had the distinction of being one of the poorest districts in all of Panem. Before Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark won the 74th Hunger Games, the district had not had a winner of the Hunger Games emerge from the ranks of its residents for twenty-four years since Haymitch Abernathy, a raging alcoholic and an embarrassment to the district, won the 50th Hunger Games. Before Haymitch, there was only one other victor (Lucy Gray Baird) from District 12, forty years before Haymitch's victory in the 50th Hunger Games and the last female victor before Katniss's joint victory with Peeta in the 74th Hunger Games, 64 years later.

District 12 was largely considered the laughingstock of Panem. Shortly after the abrupt end of the 75th Hunger Games and during the opening hours of the second rebellion, District 12 was destroyed by the Capitol, using firebombs. 930 people escaped, thanks to the foresight of Gale Hawthorne. At the end of the Second Rebellion, District 12 was rebuilt. 4 of the 75 victors stemmed from District 12, but one was removed from the records.

### District 13

District 13 was one of the thirteen districts of Panem. Its main industry was nuclear research and technology, including the production of nuclear weapons. In addition, it served as the Capitol's original command and control center for its military-industrial complex. District 13 was the instigator of the First Rebellion and led the other twelve districts in revolution against the oppression of the Capital. At the climax of the First Rebellion, the district was supposedly obliterated as a warning to the other twelve districts of the Capitol's might and that further resistance was futile. In the years following the Dark Days, the Capitol led Panem's population to widely believe that the main industry of District 13 was graphite mining and that the district was now an uninhabitable ruin, supposedly still smoldering from the toxic bombs dropped upon it.

District 13 stayed operational due to an agreement in the Treaty of Treason. During the waning days of the First Rebellion, District 13 secured a significant portion of the Capitol nuclear arsenal, and under threat of escalating the rebellion into a nuclear war, demanded independence and a non-aggression pact. The Capitol acquiesced to these terms on the condition that District 13 abandon the remaining rebelling districts and its surface infrastructure be destroyed. As such, District 13 seceded from the nation of Panem and operated covertly in a vast city-sized underground bunker. Per the terms of the non-aggression pact, the Capitol left District 13 to its own devices. None of its citizens ever participated in the Hunger Games.

While the surface of District 13 remained scarred and supposedly uninhabitable, its residents lived deep underground, hidden away from the world and the eyes of the Capitol. Over the subsequent decades, District 13 gradually rebuilt its strength, and in the lead up to the 74th Hunger Games, began subtly supporting a conspiracy alongside Hunger Games victors and high-ranking members of the Snow regime to instigate a second revolution. In the immediate outbreak of the Second Rebellion, District 13 served as the leading force and supplier of military equipment for the rebels in the other districts. Following the successful overthrow of the Snow regime at the conclusion of the Second Rebellion, District 13 was reintegrated into Panem.

## Career Districts

Districts 1, 2, and 4, known as "Career Districts," had a more positive orientation toward the Hunger Games. As residents in these districts did not generally face extreme poverty and malnutrition as is experienced in the other districts, their tributes were generally healthy and strong. In these districts, children trained for years at training academies to volunteer during the reaping, as participating and winning the Hunger Games was held as a great privilege and honor in these districts. Although it was against the rules of the Hunger Games, many children in these districts attended specialized training academies run by past victors, where they were specifically raised to participate in the Hunger Games, and thus were trained in the arts of combat and survival. They were known by the exonym as "Career Tributes", or "Careers," for short, and they used the endonym of "Pack member." Since the creation of the training programs, about half of the victors have been from a Pack district.