The Growth of Gyeongiu

**World-building:** Fergus Coyne / 1602677

## **Gyeongiu’s Growth Post Re-Enchantment**

Due to Gyeongiu’s government being aware of “Gifted” individuals for centuries prior to the Re-Enchantment, they were minorly affected when the event occurred. Gyeongiu luckily was not a main focus for magical beings, however due to the city's large population, they were mainly affected by The Gifted.  One third of Gyeongiu’s massive population became affected and mostly all of them were unable to control their powers, this led to devastation and destruction by those who thought themselves gods and those who genuinely couldn’t contain their powers. The Re-enchantment lead to massive panic among the city with the general public not feeling safe in their own homes, this then lead to riots and fighting on the street, plunging this once great utopia into chaos.

To combat this, the government issued a number of plans, implementing a curfew, enforcing the streets with police equipped with high powered weaponry, and unethical hunting of gifted. This didn’t help though, the government were prepared to deal with the gifted, but not their own people. They were making things worse by enforcing this fear-inducing propaganda on the public. So, in a lighter method to keep thing in control, the government began setting up schools to train gifted to control their powers and keep them from potentially hurting themselves or others. Also, to combat the public fear of “anyone could be a gifted”, the government began marking the gifted with a specific brand. Three lines over the left eyebrow with the last line being longer than the rest.

Soon it became mandatory for all gifted to have this symbol. Any gifted caught without one were immediately given the mark, ideally the mark was to be tattooed, however on the streets the police would permanently brand the mark onto people. This “light” method inevitably caused problems, this lay the original groundwork's for The Rebellion to form and the mark also led to hatred and segregation in the streets. Those branded were feared and shunned, locally run businesses refused to serve marked people and hate crime towards the Gifted soon became rampant. In response to this, Gifted people then began to form their own societies and communities since they were a target anywhere else.

However, this was only a small majority of The Gifted, most of them began attending the schools, mostly out of fear of their own power and also the fact that there were lots of other people going through the same things they were. Months went by of training Gifted and things were great, schools had a proficient success rate of training individuals, more schools were set up, more gifted came to learn, hate crime lowered due to people feeling safer since more Gifted could control their abilities. Classified sections of the Government watched at these ordinary people trained with the powers of gods. They quietly began to dive into the research that they had been gathering for a millennium, setting up scientific laboratories and research stations. Specific gifted were chosen from schools and used as the first line of guinea pigs

The intent of these labs were not to harm or kill gifted individuals, but use them for in-depth studies, to learn of their power; What their limit was, if could it be harnessed, if could it be replicated. Over time more and more gifted were studied and finally the government began to realise the benefits of what these people offered. Originally the schools were only set up to train peoples power so they wouldn’t misuse it or lose control, but now the government opened paths of work for trained Gifted. After graduation you could either go back to your normal life, stay at the school as a tutor for newcomers, assist in the re-construction of the cities or you could enter a branch of the police.

It took time for gifted people to find their place in their job, since they were feared and hated by not only the public but by their fellow peers. Gifted police were immediately moved into advanced squadrons and S.W.A.T due to their abilities but were only reserved for when ordinary police couldn’t handle serious situations such as, apprehending criminals with high powered weaponry, capturing large groups of criminals or capturing un-lawful or out of control Gifted themselves. The branch of the police were called The Muhyoja “무효자” which translates to “The Nullifiers”, however they soon gained their own name from the Underground Gifted, The Baesinja “배신자” which translates to “The Traitors”

Time went by, more guinea pigs were tested on, more gifted then began signing up to help the government out, through police work or construction. The government thrived through this but slowly became something horrible, they became greedy. Quietly, they became stricter, no longer wanting to waste potential, they no longer allowed Gifted that graduated the school to return to their normal lives, only to work to help the government. However, this was kept a secret from the general public. The gifted police attracted a lot of publicity making people believe that they could use their power to fight criminals and put their powers to good use, not knowing that they would be forced to anyway. As time went on tensions began to rise, if a gifted could not past a simple test that proved they were in control of their powers, they were forced by law to attend schools and enter this vicious system The Government laid out before them.

This is where The Rebellion began to thrive, now that the government were now witch-hunting Gifted, and some of The Muhyoja not feeling comfortable with this. The word seemed to spread that If you were Gifted, you were in danger. The Government seeing a Rebellion forming, they began locking down all schools with armed guards and fortifying defences, now all Gifted were treated as targets, if they were found by police they were to be captured and shipped off to a school, for forced training and employment. They also began to weed out any employees that wouldn’t comply with these new laws.  The Underground began forming by taking in any and all who wanted to see those captured freed, Gifted and Human alike.

On the surface, Gyeongiu appears to be a shining star of the silk roads, a city thriving in a destroyed world. A city with constant power and an unending supply of resources that’s constantly on the rise, expanding becoming larger and more advanced in these wasteland times. However, under the surface, a war is raging between The Mystic Government and The Shiha, a war that consumes the streets, a war that will never end for years to come