The 'Toxic' verse

Over 200 years ago, the Capitol lived in prosperity. It had thirteen Districts under its iron grasp, a strong economy and there was prosperity for all; all but those who lived in the Districts. Though some Districts were lucky others had to face the wrath of poverty, most withered while the Capitol rose stronger every year. As Capitolians grew plump on feasts and wine, children in the Districts slowly decayed into nothingness. They endured poverty and famine.

Soon they decided to rise up against the Capitol; this rebellion started with District Thirteen, though the rest of the Districts followed suite. This was a time of great distress from Capitolians and District Citizens alike. Mothers watched their children be killed before them, buildings collapsed and innocents were consumed by fire and steel. Only Districts One and Two, with their richer, more well off citizens, decided to side with the Capitol. Though the Capitol exploited the Districts who made alliances with them; they would allow hostages from One and Two to die without remorse. Their soldiers comprised mainly of the District Citizens of those so loyal to them. As even their closest allies turned the Capitol soon found themselves alienated, with no allies.

The Districts all turned.

The Capitol was driven to a final resort; it obliterated the strongest District, the nuclear one -- District Thirteen. Immediately, the rest of the Districts cowered before the almighty Capitol, who ruled that as penance for the crimes of the rebels, the twelve remaining Districts would send one boy and one girl to fight in a battle to the death. This was a year to remember the rebellion, and every year twenty-three descendants of the rebels would be mercilessly slaughtered while one lived a life of fame and wealth. The Districts spent the rest of their days oppressed.

And then there was hope during the seventy-fourth annual Hunger Games.

Two winners from District Twelve, surviving only on an act of defiance against the Capitol, birthed hope within the Districts. The current President, President Snow, saw this emerging with great panic. It was well known the girl on fire would be a revolutionary leader if she was given the time to grow, so on her annual tour everyone watched with horror as Katniss Everdeen lay dead in District Two, apparently shot by the mother of last year's District Two tribute, Cato Holdane. Mrs. Holdane was later executed.

Peeta Mellark knew otherwise, and soon there were many conspicuous actions, whispers that District Thirteen had survived and Capitol plots. President Snow, as a last resort, watched as two victors from each District were sent back in the seventy-fifth Games. The winner of these Games was the timid mother, Cecilia, a girl who Snow was certain would not spark any form of rebellion.

Snow dies and the next President (and Panem's first female President) President Raenyt ensures that laws are tougher and District Twelve are severely punished for their crimes, as well as hushing up the concept that District Thirteen had ever existed. Her deadly legacy escalated on the Districts, though the Capitol soon became a liberal haven; while in the Districts, not an utterance of rebellion could be heard, the Capitol was the new starting point of rebellion, adopting ideas of liberal ideology such as human rights, freedom of speech and even democracy.

However, the next democratically elected President was one of the worst Panem could have had. During the 130th Hunger Games President Henri Nystalgia the First was elected, vehemently opposing the liberal revolution started in the Capitol. While free speech still lived in theory, many editors and Capitolian critics mysteriously died. Human rights existed only for Capitolians. And the President destroyed democracy altogether when he changed Panem's constitution; crafting a new ideology called Sovereign Republicanism, where the Head of State would be autocratic like a King and, instead of democratic elections, only those of his blood could rule Panem.

The Third Nystalgia, Marx, is currently the ruler of Panem. On the surface he is a consensus politican, liberal and caring to those in the Capitol; he destroyed the fascist legacy of his previous parents and broadened civil rights for those in the Capitol. But underneath this, in a world of espionage and deceit, he is debatably the most callous President of them all. Cunning, calculating, and ready to go to ruthless extremes to keep his legacy safe -- including killing every prior victor -- to achieve his ends.

But the 202nd Games -- and the ones that follow -- are going to have a bigger influence on Capitolian politics than any Games ever witnessed before. As the Games rage on there will be drama, hate, love, gore, twists and traps. There will be open rebellion, but more importantly whispers behind closed doors, murders, secrets revealed and and the cataclysm of the biggest revolution Panem could witness.

Quick guide to the Toxic verse's Districts:

District One: Easily the most rich and prosperous District in Panem. It has made its fortunes from the extracting of expensive raw materials, gems, diamond, gold etc, but slowly this industry has been drained of its resources and the District is beginning to make more money from the arts and entertainment, as well as big business and corporations. This has allowed many in District One to be granted citizenship in the Capitol. Though the majority of the citizens are comfortable, there are many people who live in extreme wealth and over-indulgence. There is also a growing homeless population and population of people living in cheap, high apartments, and the District's wealth gap is slowly growing. District One has a great reputation with the Capitol and frequently contributes to the Capitol's arts and business industry; thus many support the Hunger Games and it is compulsory for all District children to train as a Career until the age 12, where they can choose whether they want to pursue the dream of Hunger Games victory or not from then on.

Looks: Most citizens tend to be pale, tall, blonde haired and blue eyed.

Names: Many citizens tend to be named after luxury goods or be given ostentatious names. E.g: Astrid, Luster, Glimmer.

Careers: Training is compulsory and free for all citizens up until age fourteen. After this, if they want to pursue further and more in depth training they have to pay the academy a reasonable fee. The academy does not preside over volunteers, but there is a very distinctive volunteering etiquette: the first to call out their name when volunteers are called for will be the ones who make it into the Games, no fighting, ifs, ands or buts.

District Two: The most patriotic District in Panem, surrounded by mountains. It is split between rich and poor, and there is very little middle ground amongst the villages that merge into the famous District. The poor are uneducated people who work in the quarry industries, they make very little, live in bleak slums and their only sense of pride is in the Hunger Games, so though the Capitol oppresses them they are still unashamedly pro-Hunger Games. The other half of the District is the part that holds tight political links with the Capitol; most are viciously pro-Capitol and work hard to become strong Careers. Those who don't make it into the Games instead go on to become or train Peacekeepers and work in law enforcement. Due to the strong political links the Capitol is adoring of District Two and have even set up comfortable welfare schemes, good housing, education and healthcare for the less fortunate who want a chance to become brutal Careers themselves.

Careers: Training costs a certain fee for the well off and is free for those who can prove that they would be unable to pay if they were poor, making them more generous than District One. There used to be a similar compulsory training scheme like District One, but this was scrapped years ago. There are also 'born and raised Careers' - Careers who were homeless so find shelter, food and a life within the academy. District Two is the only District that requires prospective Careers to kill death row criminals for desensitisation. Unlike District One, there is no volunteering etiquette. Volunteers have to fight their way onto the stage, and the one who wins the fight wins their prospective place in the Games.

Looks: Most citizens tend to have black hair, dark eyes, olive skin and be tall.

Names: Many citizens are given Greek or Roman names e.g Cato, Archimedes.

District Three: The first 'lower District' in Panem. It was a rich industry that was crippled by the Capitol after the dark days, becoming an extremely poor District, though it is slowly growing more prosperous due to its booming electronics industry, its creation of consumerists goods and its dense population being employed for cheap labour. Growing businesses in electronics and goods has created a big business monopoly across District Three, so general life and politics is controlled by big business tycoons. Their slaves are the working of District Three, who works for many hours and low pay, scraping by with the little money they can earn. They live in the urban areas of District Three, which contains no nature, only towering factories and small slums. The rich live close by in giant mansions that tower over the pathetic houses that are merely across the road. The District only has rich and poor, though a prosperous and minuscule middle class live in a small patch of verdant countryside miles away from the main area of District Three.

Looks: District Three citizens are stereotypically known for being red haired. However the District has a sizeable African American, Asian and Middle Eastern population.

Names: Many citizens are given technology related names, e.g Beetee, Wyre.

District Four: One of the more prosperous Districts in Panem, dominating the seaside ports. Due to its booming fishing industries and its plethora of successful small businesses, District Four has become a haven. Though it isn't the richest District, many people in District Four have happy lives with enough to get by. The government of District Four has tended to be more liberal over the past century too, and the District is granted moderately effective schemes in housing, healthcare, education and welfare. Due to all these factors and the beautiful scenery, sea and weather this District is usually happy and is extremely an extremely proud District. A result of this is that it has gained a cult-Career faction where many are trained and elected to participate in the Hunger Games with majority support from others in their District. This pro-Capitol pride has increased in the past year, when the District Four citizens grew disillusioned with the increasingly militant rebels.

Careers: Known as the 'soft Career' District based on the fact that unlike District One, training is not compulsory at all, and unlike District Two there is no financial aid to the poor who want to become Careers and all must pay, meaning they tend to churn out fewer Careers than most and are the most likely to have reaped tributes (even though reaped tributes are still on the rarer side). Unlike Districts One and Two, the academy presides over volunteers, picking the year's volunteers soon after the Games based on who they think is likely to win and who is likely to have the guts to go through with volunteering. Those who do or don't volunteer when they were not instructed to are punished with a hefty fine - assuming they survive the Games.

Looks: Tend to be tanned with dark blonde hair. Green eyes are known to be common in this District.

Names: Sea related names e.g Coral, Poseidon.

District Five: The District, unlike many others, doesn't really have a definitive industry. It assists with power generation used across the whole of Panem but is known overall as the 'science District', with a growing industry in chemical production and genetic research and engineering. Though the District is full of many poor and oppressed, like any other District, it is a relatively quiet District. Inhabitants are kept well-fed by their employees and busied throughout their whole lives, and many live in hive-like apartments that result in them being more socially and politically disconnected than those in other Districts.

Looks: Diverse District, no particular physical patterns.

Names: No particular type of name seems to be common.

District Six: Similarly to District Five, District Six has no official industry. It is in theory medical research, and the District is littered with big pharmaceutical monopolies and labs and small chemist shops, most of its produce imported to the Capitol or the richer Districts. Medicine such as morphling and cocodite is often stolen and traded around the District, leading to heavy addictions. District Six is one of the more spacious, less populated Districts situated right in the center of Panem, it has also had an extremely advanced travel industry that makes up a large portion of its industry. However, this industry was nationalised and tightly regulated and censored when the citizens of District Six attempted to strike and commence a mutiny against the Capitol around the time of the 6th Quarter Quell. It failed, and now much of their big industry takes place out of their control, with citizens taking labour-related jobs at best. Constantly remembering their past failure, District Six hides their resentment and carries on without holding challenge.

Looks: Diverse District, no particular physical patterns

Names: No particular type of name seems to be common.

District Seven: This District, though one of the lower Districts, is slowly becoming a rich industry. It is a tight city situated around hundreds of miles of forests, and thus many of the lower classes will be expected to go out into the forests and work as menial lumberjacks, doomed to live their lives in houses made of raw wood and littered with saw shavings. The more fortunate in the District live in the highly urbanised area of District Seven, within the dangerous timber and paper producing factories. A more small handful will own businesses and work in other sectors, in the booming centre of the District where commerce and consumerism is beginning to take the place of small business.

Looks: Diverse District, no particular physical patterns

Names: It's common for Seven citizens to be named after trees or wood: e.g Conifer, Rosewood.

District Eight: A highly industrialised District which focuses on textiles and is famously the most populated District in Panem. With District Three and Twelve it is one of the most urbanised Districts, akin to something you'd read in a Dickens novel. The sky is clouded with soot and the constant work of machines whirs in the background. Many of the working class in the District are of the urban poor and crime rates are especially high, though there is a more secluded section where the middle classes can function in relative peace.

Looks: Diverse District, no particular physical patterns.

Names: It's common to be given textile related names: e.g Nylon, Twill,

District Nine: This District is responsible for most of the food production commencing in Panem. This takes place in the form of grains, but it can also be in other foods; tinned, processed food. The District is situated in beautiful countryside which makes up the outskirts of the Districts where farming takes place, though a majority of the District and its tributes are situated in an industrial center where strenuous factory work commences. Life in District Nine is bleak, and due to an attempted assassination attempt of President Nystalgia not long after the 195th Hunger Games, the Capitol has slowly and purposely been crippling its economy. Life is hard.

Looks: Most Nine citizens have dark brown hair. There is also a sizeable Italian-American and Mexican population.

Names: It was a tradition to name first borns after animals, particular carnivorous ones (e.g Wolf or Bear). This tradition is somewhat out of fashion.

District Ten: District Ten is the most spacious Districts in the Capitol, containing miles and miles of stretching field and the occasional farm. Its industry is responsible for livestock (though District 9 possesses some, District 10 far outmatches it) and most of the poor citizens live in farms. They live with horrific conditions, but make enough to get by thanks to the dairy their livestock produce and the money they receive for it. Miles away from anybody and with little technology, the Districts here live by blissfully unaware of any other walk of life. However, District Ten has a center where the more educated, rich and revolutionary minded live.

Looks: Ten citizens have no distinctive look.

Names: The District is located in Southern Panem, and many Southern names are common. E.g Bonnie, Carlie, Avery, Sawyer.

District Eleven: A tightly compacted District, sweltering hot and responsible for agriculture and the production of most herbs, plants and fruits required for Panem to function. Though it was once spacious and free, the Capitol felt as if the incredibly impoverished in District Eleven could ignite revolution and tightened the District into tight, government-controlled communal farms, vineyards and orchards. The people there are poor and hate the Capitol, though its local government is strictly pro-Capitol and have control over every aspect of the citizenry's desperate lives.

Looks: The majority of District Eleven citizens are African American. The women are stereotypically very small, and the men stereotypically broad and tall.

Names: Often named after fruits, crops etc. E.g Maize, Seeder, Basil.

District Twelve: The smallest, most impoverished District of all. It possesses a flourishing coal industry but is constantly punished, deprived and crippled due to the rebellious sentiment it had held following the 74th Hunger Games. It is now a submissive District, filled with grimy streets and starving children. Ninety-percent of the population can expect to go into mining, work for long-hours and little pay under horrendous conditions and die young and starved. The lucky few can live away from the coal-coated Seam and make modest wages in the merchant-village. The local government of District 12 is extremely sympathetic, so the dying citizenry of District 12 can expect more freedom than those in District 11, but they are a lot hungrier and weaker; the local government's sympathies and feeble attempts of welfare and intervention do very little to help.

Looks: Those in the Seam are typically dark haired, olive skinned and grey eyed. The merchant areas are more physically diverse.

Names: Many have naturalistic names in the Seam. E.g Katniss, Gale, Willow, Zephyr. Outside the Seam, there is no tradition.

District Thirteen/District Zero: District Thirteen had worked for the Capitol supporting graphite and nuclear weapons. After the uprising, the Capitol had bombed District Thirteen heavily. The survivors had formed an underground society that had made a peace-treaty with the Capitol. District Thirteen slowly began to regain itself, and when Katniss Everdeen had defied the Capitol President Alma Coin had planned to recruit her to destroy it completely. Unfortunately, the shooting of Katniss Everdeen and the death of all other rebellious tributes in the 3rd Quarter Quell had meant that her plan could not be put into action. Coin still continued to exert a dictatorial legacy, creating a great wealth for her District and herself from creating a collectivist society where people would share food and resources equally while all working together in factories to make District Thirteen great again. After over one-hundred years of extremely hard work, the impoverished citizens and their incredibly rich leaders and rich President grew as strong as the Capitol and declared war during the events of the 203rd Games.

However, the war went badly. Despite co-ordinating an ambush, allying with the rebels of Panem and having financial and military support from Romantia, Capitolian spies intercepted the rebels of Panem and discovered all of District Thirteen's supplies. After two crushing military defeats, the Capitol has taken over District Thirteen, overthrown their government and re-established it as a Panemian District.

Looks: No particular look associated with District Thirteen/Zero.

Names: It's very common to be named after letters of the Greek alphabet, e.g Omega, Kappa etc.

Capitol (Cannot submit here): The Capitol is the capital of Panem; it is the epicenter of all political, cultural and economic influence. It is an urban city full of towering buildings and technology more advanced than a District child's wildest dreams. The Capitol contains the most important politicians, artists and scientists, though it also has a population that is deeply under the poverty line and hates the regime as much as the lower Districts do. It has a deep control over the Districts, and takes an extremely large sum of the Districts' produce in order to quench the insatiable needs of gluttonous Capitolites. The Hunger Games also take place in the Capitol and is adored by all.

The Capitol have kept their grasp for over three hundred years. And the Nystalgia's, a monarch-like family, have successfully crushed successive waves of potential rebellion. There is little hope that anything will change.

But the 202nd Games -- and the ones that follow -- are going to have a bigger influence on Capitolian politics than any Games ever witnessed before. As the Games rage on there will be drama, hate, love, gore, twists and traps. There will be open rebellion, but more importantly whispers behind closed doors, murders, secrets revealed and and the cataclysm of the biggest revolution Panem could witness.

Names: Like District One, it's common to be named after luxury goods or to be given ostentatious names: e.g Fancy, Silk, Shanae. But Roman and Greek names are also common e.g Caeser, Caecilius.

Looks: The Capitol is a very diverse place, but they often follow the same showy fashion trends.