District 13

**District 13** is one of the thirteen districts of Panem, and for a 75-year period between the First and Second Rebellions, an independent nation. Located in far northeastern part of the country, District 13 was widely thought to have been destroyed by the Capitol during the climax of the First Rebellion (74 years prior to the events of *The Hunger Games*trilogy).

For most of its history, the general public of Panem was aware that District 13's industry was graphite mining. While the district did in fact mine the substance on a small scale, their primary industry was actually nuclear science and technology. After the district was supposedly destroyed, the Capitol promoted graphite mining as 13's only industry as part of propaganda it distributed on it. This is similar to how District 2's main industry is masonry, but the Capitol attempted to conceal the fact that Peacekeepers were also primarily recruited, trained, and equipped there.

## History

### Pre-Hunger Games

Little is known about District 13's early history, other than it was founded as one of the original thirteen administrative districts of the nation of Panem. The country's military-industrial complex was originally based there, and it was a center for the development and production of nuclear weapons, technology, and science as well as the primary manufacturer of military equipment and arms for the country's military forces. The region also possessed a number of graphite mines, and the extraction of this material was a secondary industry for District 13.

Along with the other twelve districts of Panem, District 13 presumably suffered oppression by the Capitol for an indeterminate amount of time, likely for several years to decades, leading to development of dissent against the totalitarian regime. This ultimately culminated in the outbreak of the First Rebellion, with all thirteen districts of Panem rising up in revolution against the Capitol. While the exact cause of the civil war is unknown, District 13's status as the nation's primary weapons manufacturer made it a formidable threat to the Capitol's power and principal benefactor to the rebel war effort.

Over the next three years, District 13 and the other rebel districts were able to at least fight on par technologically against the Capitol and loyalist forces thanks to District 13's military equipment, even placing the Capitol under siege for the final two years of the war. However, following a failed invasion of the Capitol, the tide turned against the rebel forces. Realizing that a total rebel victory was unachievable, District 13 launched a clandestine mission that saw them secure a significant portion of the Capitol nuclear stockpile. Following this, they threatened to destroy the city by targeting it with several of their newly acquired nuclear missiles. Knowing that the Capitol possessed a secondary nuclear stockpile in the west of the country, District 13 negotiated a secret ceasefire deal under threat of mutually assured destruction: By allowing District 13 to quietly secede from Panem and become an independent state, the district would withdraw all support for the rebels in the other districts and pretend to have been completely destroyed. Unwilling to escalate the rebellion into a nuclear war that could potentially wipe out the entire country and face with no other viable alternative, the Capitol reluctantly agreed to the terms.

After this agreement was reached, District 13 evacuated all of its forces and population to a series of underground bunkers, while the Capitol obliterated all above-ground infrastructure through repeated aerial bombardment and cut off all outside access to the district. This allowed them to falsely display the ruins of the district to the rest of Panem, to remind them of the consequences of rebelling against the Capitol. With the loss of their military support, the rebellion collapsed in the face of the Capitol's overwhelming superiority, a period that became known as the Dark Days. Despite failing to secure freedom for the entire nation, District 13 would continue to fortify its position over the following decades. The newly independent nation, however, struggled in its new-found underground reality, something the Capitol may have believed that, with no outside support, would result in District 13 simply dying off. Indeed, the inhabitants struggled for some time just to stay alive, and despite their hoarded arsenal of weaponry, Boggs made it clear to Katniss Everdeen in their discussion on the district that District 13 was in no position to take on the Capitol again until very recently. It is mentioned that there was a pox outbreak in District 13 some years prior to Katniss's arrival, significantly damaging the population and making many of the survivors infertile (for that reason, District 13 was eager to accept refugees during the Second Rebellion. - as Dalton, a refugee from District 10 put it - for "breeding stock"). Unsurprisingly, there were very few children in the District. In order to survive, the people of District 13 had developed innovative technologies that allowed them to maximize available resources, as well as a strict, militaristic lifestyle that emphasized frugality and a constant readiness to defend themselves against potential attacks.

Retaining control of its valuable arsenal of nuclear weaponry, and the non-aggression pact with the Capitol ensuring its safety from outside threats, the district's populace continued developing and manufacturing new type of weaponry for its armed forces in preparation to eventually liberate the remaining twelve districts from the tyranny of the Capitol. Such an opportunity to do so would not come until several decades after the First Rebellion at some point during the Hunger Games Era, when through unspecified means, the government of District 13 came into contact and aligned itself with a network of resistant forces involving several Hunger Games victors and even high-ranking Capitol officials. Together, this secret conspiracy presumably made slow, but gradual preparations over the course of likely several years as they awaited the right opportunity to ignite a new revolution.

A significant part of the Snow family fortune was invested in District 13 munitions, thus their wealth was almost entirely wiped out in the wake of the First Rebellion. Coriolanus Snow's grandmother publicly brushed this off, saying that they had plenty of other assets, but this was far from the truth.

### *The Hunger Games*

District 13 is first mentioned during Mayor Undersee's speech prior to the commencement of the reaping for the 74th Hunger Games. During his speech, he told the story of how the districts of Panem rose out of the ashes of North America, and how District 13 was obliterated during the Dark Days.

Katniss Everdeen would later recall that graphite mining was an industry in District 13 before it was obliterated, and that when the district was occasionally shown on television, it was still smoldering from the toxic bombs dropped on it by the Capitol.

### *Catching Fire*

District 13 is not mentioned again until Katniss's encounter with Bonnie and Twill, two refugees from the uprising of District 8, who Katniss ran into while out in the forest outside of District 12. The two mentioned to Katniss that they were trying to reach District 13, initially confusing her as she questioned them on why they would want to go to a place that was nothing but smoldering ruins. The duo proceeded to explain their theory that the destruction story might not be completely true: whenever the Capitol shows television footage of District 13, the ruins are indeed always smoldering. While this does tie in with the Capitol's official position that the area is still uninhabitable, Bonnie and Twill realized that the exact same mockingjay made an appearance in every broadcast, even in ones supposedly filmed years apart. The two concluded that the Capitol never actually shows the current state of the district, but simply replays old footage with a different reporter spliced in. As such, Bonnie and Twill believe that the district is still inhabited, with the people living underground. They also express their belief that the Capitol may have in fact left District 13 alone in the first place because of the district's specialty in nuclear weaponry- up until this point, Katniss was apparently unaware that 13 ever had nuclear weapons, but realized that her only information on the subject came from the Capitol itself. Although she was slow to accept Bonnie and Twill's theory, Katniss began to review footage of the old broadcasts and realized that they were right about the mockingjay, which led her to wonder what was actually in the district. Following her rescue from the Hunger Games arena at the end of the Third Quarter Quell, Katniss learned that not only was District 13 still inhabited, but it was being used as the base for a new rebellion.

### *Mockingjay*

After the Third Quarter Quell, Katniss Everdeen, Finnick Odair, and Beetee Latier were rescued from the arena and brought to District 13, along with the survivors from the bombing of District 12. Upon Katniss's arrival in District 13, she learned a fuller history of the place: Due to the non-aggression pact they established with the Capitolseventy-five years earlier, District 13 has remained politically independent and isolated from the rest of Panem. In exchange for this freedom, they promised not to attack the Capitol and start a nuclear war, terms that the Capitol was willing to accept in order to prevent massive destruction and loss of life. As a result of their political isolation, District 13 has never participated in The Hunger Games.

The tributes subsequently began training for their roles in the Second Rebellion as part of their service for District 13's war machine: Katniss served as the symbol and rallying point for the districts, Beetee created specialized weaponry and infiltrated the Capitol's broadcast network, and Finnick performed in a special propaganda filmto help distract the Capitol while Peeta Mellark, Johanna Mason, and Annie Crestawere rescued from imprisonment in special operations mission into the city itself.

During an interview with Caesar Flickerman, Peeta warned District 13 on live TV that the Capitol was going to bomb the district. This unexpected warning gave them a ten-minute head start to evacuate the District 13's populace to the fortified bunkers in the district's lower levels. The Capitol saw through this act, and Peeta was whipped and tortured as punishment.

District 13 would go on to play a valuable role in securing freedom for the entire nation throughout the Second Rebellion, through its roles as a weapons supplier and communications center. The district also provided air support to the rebels, most notably in the Bombing of the Nut (District 2) and the bombing of the Capitol. Following the victory of the rebellion and the establishment of the Constitutional Republic, District 13 was most likely reintegrated into Panem.

## Government and Culture

### Government

Prior to the First Rebellion, District 13 was originally one of the thirteen districts of Panem. The governance of District 13 during this time period is largely unknown, although it can be assumed that the district possessed some sort of mayor or governor that oversaw the district and was responsible to the Capitol for the industrial quotas to be sent to the city.

Following its secession from Panem during the Dark Days, District 13 became an independent, albeit underground state. It appears to be modelled as a republic, as the district is led by an executive named the President. As District 13, alongside the other twelve districts, were fighting for freedom in both the First and Second Rebellion, it can be assumed that District 13 was a democracy, at least in principle. Due to the unique circumstance, however, of the district's existence and the constant threat posed by the Capitol during the Hunger Games Era, the government of District 13 operated more as a stratocracy, a government ruled by military chiefs. The entire citizen population was drafted into the service or support of the district's armed forces and the government overall taking on a militaristic form. Ironically, the citizen's of District 13 were required to follow a strict, regimented lifestyle with a singular-career path much as the citizens of the remaining districts were subjected to by the Capitol. This lifestyle, however, was borne out of necessity and for the greater benefit of everyone in District 13, unlike in Panem, where such a system only benefitted the Capitol, to the detriment of the districts and their people.

District 13 is led by a President, who serves as the presumed head of state and government of the district and commander-in-chief of the district's armed forces. District 13's latest and last serving president was Alma Coin, who served for an indeterminate number of years before presumably resigning when the district was reintegrated into Panem at the end of the Second Rebellion and she self-assumed the post of interim president for the entire country. How the President of District 13 is selected is not specified, although an election of some form is likely. Similarly, the term length of the President of District 13, should one exist, is also not made clear as it is not specified in the novels or movies how long Alma Coin has been serving as president of 13. Whether District 13 possesses a legislature or a judiciary remains unspecified, although these branches of government could possibly exist alongside the district's executive branch.

### Schedules

Citizens of District 13 live a highly regimented life: Every morning, each citizen gets a temporary tattoo on the underside of their arm that shows their daily schedule. The schedule displays, in 24-hour time, where to be and what activities are to be performed at specific times. After a certain time, the ink breaks down and can be washed off in preparation for the following day.

Activities such as meals - which are normally taken communally - are scheduled regularly every day and participated in by all citizens. Other activities can vary significantly and depend on several factors: Children under the age of 14 attend school, taking classes on history and other subjects. Depending on their background, children may have other duties in addition to schooling- Primrose Everdeen assisted in the District's hospital. If you are over 14, you qualify for the rank of "soldier" and receive military training in addition to some educational sessions. Activities for adults appear to be more specialized-when the refugees from District 12 arrived, Mrs. Everdeen was assigned to the hospital (due to her healing background) and Greasy Sae to the kitchens. At some point during the day, citizens are given 30 minutes of downtime with family (i.e. "Reflection").

Although schedules are not usually subject to change - at least not changes requested by citizens - Katniss insisted on several conditions before she agreed to help the rebellion, some of which involved scheduling. In District 13, people were not allowed to have outside pets (as a precaution), but Katniss asked that her family be able to keep their pet cat Buttercup, in exchange for Katniss being the rebels' Mockingjay. Buttercup was let outside to find food, but his comings and goings were strictly controlled, and if he had caused any security problems, he would have been shot on sight. If he missed curfew, he would be locked out.

Katniss also requested special hunting time. Alma Coin accepted but stipulated that she could only hunt within a strict quarter-mile radius for a time span of two hours and had to use the game that they, she and Gale Hawthorne caught for the kitchen in District 13. They each had a tracking device attached to their ankle.

### Celebrations

Weddings in District 13 are relatively low-key events; the couple signs a marriage certificate and they're assigned a compartment to share. Due to their strict, frugal lifestyle, the citizens are not much prone to celebration, and Katniss muses that they seem to have no holidays at all. They had to be taught by residents of District 12 how to dance at Finnick and Cordelia‘s wedding.

## Armed Forces

Being the center of Panem's military-industrial complex prior to the First Rebellion, District 13 was the primary weapons supplier to the nation's military. As such, this allowed them to become a formidable threat to the Capitol's power when the civil war broke out. Its military might and arsenal played a crucial role in both the First and Second Rebellion in supporting the other districts to successfully launch armed insurrections. District 13's military arsenal proved invaluable to not only securing its own independence from Capitol rule at the end of the First Rebellion but also successfully overthrowing the Capitol's totalitarian rule during the Second. District 13 other primary industry, nuclear weapons development and research, also saw it produce a significant stockpile of nuclear missiles. These weapons of mass destruction would be instrumental in allowing it to propose the ceasefire permitting its independence in the first place, when it seized the Capitol's stockpile in the east.

During its 75 years as an independent nation, District 13 continued building upon its armed forces, developing special weaponry and new military technology. In addition to its seized pile of nuclear weapons, District 13 also possessed a fleet of hovercraft, with some of it formerly belonging to the Capitol's Peacekeeping Force. Notably, however, District 13's hovercraft appear to be less sophisticated than the Capitol-derived variants.

All able-bodied District 13 citizens aged fourteen years and above are obliged to serve in the armed forces, with its standard-issue infantry rifle being the Heckler & Koch G36K rifle in the film. Interestingly, District 13's soldiers are never seen wielding American-made weaponry such as M-16 rifles, despite the fact that Panem is situated in the former Canada and the United States

However, rebel militias in various districts are seen using other types of weaponry, with most of it being from the era of the Second World War, including M1 Carbines and MG-42 machine guns.

## Location and Geography

According to the Panem map shown in The Hunger Games Adventures, District 13 is located in the northeast of Panem and North America. Its territory is primarily centered around the Canadian provinces of eastern Ontario and Quebec and the U.S. state of New York. This location ties into its secondary industry of graphite mining, as notable sources of graphite are located in New York and near Lake Huron in Ontario. Similarly, in the region that District 13 occupies, historically there were five nuclear reactors in this area, three in Ontario and two in New York, with a number of supplementary nuclear research, nuclear technology and uranium processing facilities in the region as well.

District 13 borders three districts: District 6 (to the west and northwest), District 3 (to the southwest), and District 12 (to the south).

Before the end of the First Rebellion, District 13 existed on the surface like all of the other districts. It is unknown whether the district was affluent or poor, although given its district industry and its status as the then center of Panem's military-industrial complex, the former is highly likely. The district was likely more urbanized than rural, and it was probably similar to District 2 in infrastructure as it also had a mining industry as well as succeeding the district as Panem's headquarters for its military-industrial complex after the First Rebellion.

Following its independence from Panem, the entirety of the District's surface infrastructure was leveled by a series of intense of Capitol bombing raids as stipulated in the ceasefire deal with the Capitol. The district in turn relocated its populace, industry, and military to a vast series of underground bunkers. When these bunkers were constructed and their extent is unknown. Similarly, it is unknown if District 13 comprises just a singular massive bunker or a large central bunker with a number of smaller satellite bunkers throughout the district. What is known, however, is that the underground bunkers were both large and sophisticated enough to be self-sustaining for a population numbering in the few ten of thousands for three-quarters of a century with no outside help. District 13 was even able to take on the ~7,000 survivors of District 12 with little to no difficulty (13, however, was still recovering from significant population loss from pox outbreak). Furthermore, the bunkers additionally housed a vast quantity of military equipment, weapons, vehicles, and supplies and the factories to produced on top of particularly nuclear weapon arsenal. Ther bunkers of District 13 were fortified enough to withstand significant attacks, with only the top layers of the underground complex damaged or destroyed by Capitol bunker-buster missiles during an attack in the Second Rebellion. It is unknown if the bunkers could withstand a nuclear strike, but it is possible such an event is one of the purposes the bunkers were originally intended to survive against.