Mapping Panem

[penfold_x]

I love thinking about the mechanics of the Hunger Games universe. Even before I was making up stories in my head about my favorite characters, I was intrigued by the puzzle of how this post-apocalyptic society functions. I've devoured all the metas I can find, and my reading preferences tend strongly toward the elaborate world-builders of the

Comments

[kawuli]

Oh, nice! I definitely handwave a lot of Panem geography, but for the most part it's similar to what you've drawn here.

I like the rust-belt Chicago-Detroit corridor as the core of D6 for historical and emotional reasons, but yours makes actually more sense in some ways. HMMMMMMMM. I borrowed (ripped off) the idea that 6 mines iron from deathmallow and there's been iron mining in northern MN, WI, and the MI upper peninsula so I pretend it all makes sense. But it's not actually central for trains with how Panem's laid out so :/

I have 9 and 10 both as more N-S belts, with 10 starting not far east of 2 (Texas, OK, Western Kansas and Nebraska, the Dakotas--size depending how much space you think you need). 9 would then be Eastern KS and Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois,WI, parts of MN. This lets you run cattle in the rain shadow of the Rockies where it's dry for row crops and exploit climate gradients in 9 for diversity of crops and harvest/planting times. That would also let you have teams of people move from South-North with big fancy combines at harvest. You could likely do something similar at planting if you had similarly expensive/complex machinery. I talked about this randomly here. Of course massive climate change screws all of this up completely but let's pretend things work at least SOMETHING like they do now.

Other than that, while I've never specifically drawn it out (apparently there is a limit to my nerdiness) the districts are more or less where I'd thought of them. FUN STUFF

[penfold_x]

I like the rust-belt Chicago-Detroit corridor as the core of D6 for historical and emotional reasons

I get it--it would be fantastic, from a historical perspective, and have lots of the grey cold that I figure Six has in spades.

I borrowed (ripped off) the idea that 6 mines iron from deathmallow and there's been iron mining in northern MN, WI, and the MI upper peninsula so I pretend it all makes sense.

Oh, I like this idea! This is yet another thing Panem needs a lot of, but there's no hint in canon where they might be getting it from! (Don't even get me started where they find some of the minerals Three needs for technology manufacture)

I have 9 and 10 both as more N-S belts,

I don't know why this didn't occur to me, but I can see some big advantages. For both livestock and crops there are going to be types that do better in cooler or warmer weather. N-S running districts would facilitate that. Your details about running cattle and planting times are pretty persuasive. Now I'm wondering if there's a way I can make both those a little more tall and and little less wide...

I talked about this randomly here.

LOL! You are not kidding about the random. FWIW, I totally concur about Nine having a lower population, and spending the winter in the towns, working processing facilities.

[kawuli]

(Don't even get me started where they find some of the minerals Three needs for technology manufacture)
RIGHT? Newly-discovered sources of coltan and other rare earths in Arizona, apparently. Or else someone is flying over to central Africa or someplace, which would be a hell of a logistical challenge.

Which district is responsible for absolutely obsessive recycling of everything?

You are not kidding about the random
My brain is a weird place.

[penfold_x]

It's a tough problem, right? I concur regarding the obsessive recycling of everything; I'm guessing that the population is much, much smaller (no more than 1% of the current US population), so there's a lot to recycle (well, if it hasn't been blown up). I also think the Capitol uses hovercraft to take 'disappeared' people to places like China and South Africa to work in mines or other recycling facilities. That's the only way I can work out how minerals that don't appear in US soil can be acquired. It would also be much easier to get diamonds and copper there, which I presume the Capitol will want in larger quantities than can be mined or recycled in the US.

[kawuli]

I also think the Capitol uses hovercraft to take 'disappeared' people to places like China and South Africa to work in mines or other recycling facilities.

This is a wonderfully creepy idea, I love it. There really is no way to get all the different mined materials Panem would need from just North America. Even if you have garbage-mining and recycling and everything, it's just not feasible.

Man, now I want a story about the pilots of those hovercraft, because WOW that would be a crazy job to have.