Hello, handlers. Once again, with the opening of V6 pregame, we are giving an update as to the state of the SOTF world, to allow greater verisimilitude in posts and profiles. Once again, what follows is a non-narrative summary of important details and events in the world.
- The year in V6 is 2015. Pregame spans the spring semester, from the first day (January fifth) until the kidnapping (most likely in mid-April).
- For the most part, SOTF follows along with the real world. Disasters, terrorist attacks, recessions, fashion trends, film releases, etc. are all the same as IRL.
- The president of the United States, Oscar Chase McAllister, is the ideological equivalent/fictional stand in of Obama. President Bridges lost the 2008 election (he was on his first term from 2005-2008, replacing President Bush, who did not run for reelection in 2004 and has since faded from the political scene). For all intents and purposes, Bridges served Bush's second term exactly as Bush did, and the current president has followed along exactly in step with Obama. While McAllister faced some criticism in light of the 2012 resurgence of SOTF, much more of the blame fell upon the Bridges administration (which had handled all previous incidents involving the AT, and which McAllister's administration, despite being the one to make the declaration of SOTF's downfall, was able to spin as responsible for the pronouncement), and Bridges has found himself unpopular even within his own party.
- SOTF has not recurred since 2012, but is no longer considered a thing of the past. The government acknowledges the organization as a threat and there is a perpetually-active manhunt for its leaders, though thus far that has proved highly ineffective.
- As a result of SOTF's resurgence, certain changes have become more prominent in the school system. While overall security remains roughly the same, senior trips are now quite uncommon, mostly the province of private organizations or poorly-attended. There are, of course, exceptions; Bayview Secondary School notably continues the tradition. Cochise High School has not had a senior trip since 2012.
- Recordings of SOTF still circulate online, primarily through torrents and sites akin to LiveLeak. The cultural status of the recordings is roughly equivalent to graphic execution footage. It is accessible easily enough, but carries a serious stigma, and the government still makes periodic efforts to shut down host sites, and there are periodic rumors that looking it up is a great way to land on FBI watchlists.
- SOTF as any sort of merchandising presence is gone, outside of a few fringe/counter-culture elements (the occasional punk or noise band looking to stir controversy with the cover of an EP, for example). There's very little remaining of the (already quite niche) more mainstream merchandise that once existed, with the bulk of it recalled or acquired and then destroyed; what does remain, however, is considered collection material among certain elements.
- STAR has not turned up again in any capacity. The government very rarely acknowledges them, though the conspiracy theorists are still going strong.
- There are a number of local memorials, especially in the areas affected by the kidnappings, and there is a national acknowledgement replete with speeches every year around the anniversary. With the tenth anniversary of V1 approaching, attention is expected to be particularly high.
- Calvert is still out of the public eye/his fate unknown, either due to cutting himself off totally from the attention or to never being confirmed returned in the first place, to the point where he has largely fallen out of the discourse regarding SOTF.
If you have any questions regarding this, or other world-building questions, please PM SOTF_Help, and we will see about answering them. Please try only to address major issues in this fashion. A few other things of note:
- Battle Royale and The Hunger Games still do not exist in the SOTF universe, nor do derivative works. Plase don't reference them in-character.
- If your character has any notable experience with SOTF clips/footage, it should be in their profile and should be closely considered and justified--the days of SOTF fandom are long past by the time these characters are at an appropriate age to be aware of such things, and being a "fan" of SOTF is like being a fan of beheading videos.
- Staff is currently working on a continuity hierarchy for past versions, which we'll roll out upon completion. However, if you have any reason to reference SOTF continuity within posts, a good rule of thumb is as follows: Anything from V4 or V5 is fair game unless it's blatantly impossible. Anything from V1-3 is true in broad brushstrokes (names of killers and victims, kill counts and death order, who won, etc.) but anything that would not be acceptable by today's standards (coming from Arkham Asylum, pregame murders, etc.) should not be referenced.
