District 2

District Two is the most prestigious district in all of Panem. Its primary industry is masonry and many of its citizens live on to be shipped away as Peacekeepers or high ranking officials within their district.

## Society

Citizens of District 2 staple their lives down to three distinct philosophies, those being **honor**, **discipline**, and **order**, all listed in order of relevance. This way of living has served the residents well and continues to serve them well to this day.

The outer city is made up of residents operating under a precise list of structures. Living accommodations are determined by military background, and residents within are segregated accordingly and expected to follow complex regulations enforced throughout the day.

## Areas

The inner district houses the Justice Building with the academy standing just beyond south of it. Academy enrollment is a requirement for all children of age, where at this time, children are to be shipped off to begin their years worth of extensive military training. Students live on the premises and legal guardians are allowed visitation rights twelve times a year at the most. Houses belonging to retired Peacekeepers and veterans from The Dark Days line the central square of the academy building. They serve as trainers for the academy and have been known to take their job of beating discipline into the youths of District 2 very seriously. Near the veterans are high-ranking military officers and their families, and beneath them, lesser-ranking personnel stretching to the outer areas of the city where the average masonry worker can be found. This layout is heavily inspired by the ancient Romans. Both groups place their high ranking at the camp’s center, and their low ranking to the outer edges of the wall to serve as human shields if necessary.

## Social Ranking:

The District Two social class is derived from an ancient country known as The United States of America. They are as follows in order of importance:

•Generals/Sergeants

•Colonels/Corporals

•Majors/Privates

•Captains

•Lieutenants

•Masonry Workers

•Cadets

In the beginning, District 2’s loyalty to the Capitol allowed them to play key roles in the fight for power against the outlying districts. While this did later earn their district leniency, even they were not made exempt from the annual Games. This outcome has led to a brewing hatred for those who do not otherwise fit District 2’s quota.

## Academy

The academy itself is very strict, with even the harshest of punishments resulting from stepping just a foot out of line. It’s been utilized since before The Dark Days, and even managed to produce a top recruit, Tooth Basso, to represent for the very first Games as a non volunteer tribute.

### Academy Training

The academy has taken pages from several other civilizations, notably the Spartans and Agoge, to be used as early foundation. In this system, cadet students are provided with less rations than normal to encourage stealing and cheating as a means of survival. Should a cadet be caught taking part in this action, they are to receive ten lashes on the spot for their failure to remain undiscovered.

Cadets are often forced to participate in often brutal competitions. A notable example  would be the ‘Battle of Endurance’, a sport involving two students attempting to outlast the other during a volley of whips. If such a competition falls on guardian visitation days, it isn’t uncommon to see cheering parents encouraging their children to maintain composure and hold out strong.

Though all students are taught the basics of combat, the select few who excel at these courses will be taught "Specialty courses". Specialty courses involve training with swords, spears, throwing knives, and other weaponry along with advanced hand-to-hand combat techniques.

Every month, academy rankings are used to determine the top eligible cadet students. The ‘Bottom Feeders' are immediately booted and sent to the mines by age 18, the last age for Reaping eligibility, while the top cadets are given a higher ranking command and an opportunity to move up the hierarchy. The top ten of those are split into groups of five males, and five females, and then sent off to The Ring.

### The Ring

The ring holds a round-robin no-holds-barred tournament fight to determine which cadet receives the honor of entering the Games. The winners are then moved onto the final stage where they are presented with the final test. In this phase, winners of the tournament are each placed into separate rooms. They are provided with a sword and instructed to kill a prisoner being held without further context. The moment the prisoner's life is taken by the cadet, the cadet has become entirely loyal to their district to the point where they’d kill without question. This leads to Game selection, and the cadet is reserved the sole right to volunteer for their gender slot at the Reaping. Should a cadet refuse to kill the prisoner, they are shunned off by the academy. As a final form of harsh punishment, no one is allowed to take the spot of the reaped child who the failed cadet was meant to volunteer for. That child is to go into the Games, where they are likely to die due to inexperience, and the cadet is ridiculed for the rest of their life over it.

Since the first Games, only four tributes have been able to complete all the trials and enter as representatives. These tributes are:

•Tooth

•Ajax

•Varic

•Leila