Post by ::TORI ♠ on Feb 28, 2010 16:28:32 GMT -5
Gotham. The word used to bring to mind images of a glorious, thriving city. It rivaled New York in renown, drawing thousands of people in with its lights and promises of a bright future. Big business boomed, technology thrived, the arts bloomed. The world's wealthiest, smartest, and trendiest people roamed the skyscrapers, keeping the city at the forefront of world affairs. The philanthropy of those who owed their affluence to the city provided even the roughest, gritiest districts with a sense of respect. But along with the noble and beautiful, Gotham also attracted the villainous and desperate. Gang violence ravaged the streets, organized crime rings held a death grip on many outwardly respectable organizations and, as tensions escalated and times grew darker, a new class of criminals, dangerous in their outright insanity and immorality, began to plague the city.
Arkham Asylum. The long-surviving establishment served as both a treatment facility for the mentally unsound and an infamous penitentiary for the criminally insane. Doctors, psychologists, and researchers of every sort flocked to the hospital in pursuit of wild criminals and dreaming of seeing their names in medical journals. The asylum, under the direction of Jeremiah Arkham himself, became known as a center of modern psychological research, its brilliant doctors turning out new treatments and theories just as fast as they recieved new, bizarre, patients to test them on.
Officers of the Gotham Police Department were one by one swept up in the sheer scope of crime in the city. Some rose to the occasion, obsessing over the grand idea of ridding the city of the malignant nutcases it was infested with. Others, many others, fell victim to the looming darkness and drifted to the other side of the law. Corruption ran rampant behind - and in front of - the city's dazzling curtain.
In their growing fear, the citizens of Gotham clung to their mysterious Dark Knight in hopes of protection. But, when a scapegoat was needed, they quickly rejected him in the fickle style of the rich and spoiled.
Yet, even as such holes and cracks appeared in the city's workings, it managed to pull itself together and carry on.Those times are in the past.
December 19th, 2009. The day in which Gotham City fell into its own dark ages. Earthquakes were improbable in the region. One hitting a 7.5 on the Richter Scale was impossible.Gotham was always a place for the impossible.
In less than an hour's time, the city cracked and crumbled and became a ruined monument. Many buildings were leveled, almost all others were damaged severely. Many lives were lost, almost all others were ruined. Scientists found data to suggest that the city might be hit again - and harder. The United States government ordered an evacuation of the entire city. The wealthy and the fortunate escaped and became refugees in their own nation. Those that remained, thousands in reality, though only a few hundred "officially", were left to rot in a No Man's Land.
Resources were thin; the damage was extensive. There seemed little hope for aid as the city was barricaded and cut off from the rest of the world.
Before the disaster, crime abounded. Now, it positively rules the city. The mayor was killed in the first month. Arkham Asylum and its remaining staff clings to what patients it still contains, but with few guards those that are checked into the facility usually have short stays. The number of escapes rises almost daily.
The city has degraded into a strange and desperate war zone. The crime families are attempting to enforce their own brand of "order" through their time-honored traditions of extortion and brute force. The rogues that Arkham tries so desperately to contain carry out their own mad schemes for power or perverse amusement. The still-lawful cops and other virtuous citizens that remain stuggle to make it possible for the ruin of a civilization to continue on towards some future redemption. The unfortunate, ordinary citizens who are trapped in this torment fight for any semblance of normalcy they can acquire. And there appears to be one man at the head of the majority of this chaos; The Joker.
Where is The Batman when his people need him? He vanished in the aftermath of the earthquake, leaving only his costumed "family" and few allies behind to uphold his duty. When, and if, he does return will he be welcomed back? Or will he be too late to redeem his city?It was once said that the night is darkest just before the dawn.Well, welcome to Gotham's darkest hour...dawn doesn't seem to be coming any time soon.
(Please note that this plot is loosely based off the No Man's Land series of comics in combination with the world created by Christoper Nolan in his recent Batman films. Unless stated above, we do not intend to strictly follow the plots or details of No Man's Land, but rather hope to create our own unique story.)