History

A decades-long drought and polluted waterways left most water undrinkable. The black seas and acid rain were both expensive and difficult to filter for consumption. Most states altered their budgets to target this issue, abandoning other fundamental programs such as infrastructure upkeep and development in the process.

 

For years the South received their supply from the North, who got theirs from the East, who took theirs from outside the state. This convoluted web relying on a few select sources put pressure on the entire system.

 

When a series of reactors leaked into the supply, the nation was left at a crisis. States were broken into individual city-states where they divided up the remaining clean water for rationing. This city’s was stored in the Strasburg Dam.

 

It became important to not only control the water, but the population. The penal code system was implemented to deter emotional attachment, limit intimacy, and ultimately curb reproduction.

 

Soon life partners could no longer be chosen, but were assigned by the city to align with the goals of the penal code system.

 

Codes were further expanded to punish those with children beyond the suggested limit by reducing their rations.

 

The Wall was built to isolate the city and protect its water from outside leechers of surrounding regions.

 

Random identification checks were rolled out to verify travel visas, ID cards, and citizenship against a blood-based online database.

 

All these methods enabled the city to provide just enough rations to the inhabitants through what little could be purified combined with what was stored in the Strasburg Dam.

 

And then the dam broke…