Welcome to the Digital South

Two years after the Treaty of Cairo, Atlanta thrives as capital of the Digital South, an international city and idea wedged into the southern United States of America. 2030 was supposed to be the year when man landed on Mars, instead a wave of violence and scientific discoveries caused a slight shift in mankind’s priorities. A Third World War lasted less than a month and killed ten million people world wide. Another ten million died from the Russian Plague. Governments rapidly lost control of people who no longer wanted to be ruled by out of touch professional politicians.

The true Digital Revolution began in Israel where a group of dissident Jewish and Arab students began the Virtual Jerusalem community. A combination of virtual head space and real world “embassies” Virtual Jerusalem created international sensation. When the Israeli government cracked down on the “terrorists” there was outrage around the world. Since that day there has been no Virtual Jerusalem out of respect for the Martyred Two Hundred.

The wave of violence was brief and over a three year period over two billion people became Zero Citizens. They joined virtual and digital nations, uploaded themselves to mass computers and live among other humans, working and living and loving. The human race is now more complex than ever. Science has created technology in a few short years that has fostered a second revolution, but the issues of rich and poor still remain. Some nations resist the digitization of people and corporations have invaded virtual space, seeking to exploit the new laws for their own gains. There is peace around the world but within that peace lies danger, ready to explode.

In the shadows between the virtual and real lie the Red Shifters. They walk a fine line between law and order, between real and virtual nations. Welcomed in some places, they are feared in others and despised in several more. Some liken them to rock stars while others call them pirates. Some fight for justice and some odor of corruption with them even to the digital world.

Every year thousands apply for their Red Card, but only a few ever make it…

Hello Zero Citizen

You are aspiring to be a member of the Red Shift. It is a nation full of rebels and rejects, liars and lovers, thieves and tyrants. A nation of mercenaries who somehow manage to stay neutral in human conflicts but not asking what kind of work its citizens engage in.

Digital Atlanta is at the heart of the Red Shift. The second largest virtual community it has every one of the world’s most powerful corporations and virtual nations as a part of its Digital Embassy. In addition, Atlanta is nestled in the most conservative remaining region of North America. As Atlanta and several surrounding cities became more digital and international, the surrounding localities become more and more drawn and conservative. Ugliness has risen and added another stone to the weight around Atlanta’s neck. Only time will tell if the two worlds can coexist.