#panem map

[assassininblack1783]

Panem Map (more or less official)

Panem Maps - Panem Propaganda

[realmermaid333]

Slowly thinking up a map of Panem as I re-read the books. I think that district 4 takes up pretty much the entirety of the west coast, extending from north to south and bordering district 10 at the bottom.

I think district 7 is above district 4 where Canada and northern Washington would have been. District 4 starts in what's left of southern Washington then extends down to Southern California.

Then of course district 12 is in Appalachia and the Capitol is in the Rockies.

I wonder how/why they numbered the districts and what the numbers mean. They can't all be in order. Maybe it was the order with which they were established

[tortoise-n33ds-purpose]

Map of Panem by Camden K. and Kelsey G.

Does anyone have an better quality version of this map of Panem (which I really like)? I did some more Googling and found the Amateur Panem Cartographers' LiveJournal:

Map of Panem: A NerdFriday Endeavor as Based on Historical Industry, Geography, and Our Imaginations By Camden K and Kelsey G, Amateur Panem

Unfortunately, all the photos there are gone. On the plus side, it does still contain their written reasoning for why they designed the map this way.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

More lakes built in the pre-Panem period and lasting those 300+ years through to the trilogy. 

Osage and Missouri River west of Jefferson City is dammed to rise up to around 230-240m surface elevation, average depth around 50 meters; Missouri River redirected north to flow through the Salt River basin north into upper the Mississippi.

Lower Missouri valley and Meremec River also dammed up to 160 meters to connect into one lake that flows into the Mississippi. Canal’s dug and all southern lower points blocked so that Arkansas Lake fully redirects into Osage basin. 

Due to lack of viable roads or railways at this point, the reservoirs now allow the Dam Builders easy access to the northern plains and the newly-named West City; in turn granting access to the western nations for trade.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

The Capitol.

Very rough draft of the layout for the city. Of course, not all roadways, canals, and transit paths are shown; though the main national rail lines are included (the train from D12 entered in from that gray line coming from the southeast).

As can be seen, the bulk of the city sits on top of a lake. IE it’s one major artificial platform, with utilities below and cargo transport below the surface. The exception are the suburbs and Presidential Grounds, which are on solid earth. The other former islands are turned into parks.

Coordinates are 52°08′ N and 118°26′ W. The two pale lines toward the lower right-hand corner are to denote 1 mile and 1 km.

Main sources of inspiration: Rome, Paris, Chicago, Dubai, Amsterdam, and Los Angeles.

Listed Below are what all of the numbers and colors correspond to:

Main City

1 White: Presidential Grounds

2 Light Gray: City Circle

3 Magenta: Victors’ Boulevard

4 Magenta Circle: Games Headquarters (including training center)

5 Chartreuse: Downtown

6 Brown: Mixed-Government/Residential

7 Purple: Governmental Zone

8 Pale Purple: Panem General Hospital

9 Orange: University of Panem

10 Light Orange: Northern Boardwalk

11 Beige: Midtown

12 Dark Red: Blue Collar Zone

13 Red: District Town

14 Dark Gold: Uptown

15 Light Gold: Panemian Riviera

16 Yellow: Capitol Studios

17 Dark Gray: Industrial Sector

18 Darkish Gray: Union Station

19 Medium Gray: Transportation Sector

20 Black: Utilities (technically throughout the whole city, but this is in the one spot on the surface)

Suburbs

21 Teal: Quirinal/Embassy Row

22 Olive Green: Esquilinus

23 Medium Green: West and East Caelius

24 Forest Green: Aventinus

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

North America around 2500 AD. In other words, during the Games era; right after the 1st QQ if you want to be specific.

Of course, orange is Panem. Darker shade is D13 (even though the inhabited portion is relegated to the facility). Neither president that we love to hate have yet ascended to power.

Crimson: Mesoamerican Empire. With a population in the hundreds of millions, it outnumbers its hated northern neighbor by at least twenty-fold. Note that the overall culture changed a lot from its predecessor Mexico; that happens when a hundred million or so Americans/Canadians flood into the region and take control four centuries prior. Doesn’t stop it the gov from promoting an image of Rome-meets-Tenochtitlan.  

Forest Green: United Tribal Consortium of the Northwestern Pacific Coast... or Haida Gwaii. Both names slight misnomers as it’s not concentrated to the Haida Tribe, Haida Gwaii, or even the NW coast of North America.

Chartreuse: Confederated States of the Caribbean. A name that fits a bit more, though it also includes the Guyana Highlands. The Mesos aren’t too fond of them either considering it quickly folded in the Yucatan upon that latter’s rebellion a couple centuries prior.

Gray is unclaimed.

Important note: if you are living in Panem and find out about these neighbors, it’s not recommended to try escaping there. Haida Gwaii and the Confederacy are great places to live... and they uphold that by shooting anybody who tries to enter without permission; there have been many Peacekeeper hovercraft and asylum seekers that learned that for the first and last time. And assuming you can get through the DMZ to the Meso Empire, and manage to avoid suspicion by the inhabitants... you’ll find that it’s pretty much the Mogadishu to Panem’s Pyongyang.

Oh and the purple area is just a Nordic kingdom. Nothing to be concerned about. Holds a monopoly on the North Atlantic fish market.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Tweaked my previous headcanon map of Panem a bit more.

Now besides the district capitals (black circle with a white circle in the middle), included are larger cities (50k pop or more; designated with simple black dots) and the trade ports (back dot with two white squares). Oh and this is still Hunger Games era. Also, moved the D13 facility down to Basketong.

Also included are the placement of other recognized nations in near-black. That little sliver at the top is part of Haida Gwaii, Florida and the Caribbean Isles are part of the Caribbean Confederacy, and the bulk of Mexico is the Mesoamerican Empire.

And if you're wondering what those paired gray lines between Panem and the Empire are supposed to be, that's the DMZ.

Now I just need to include the railroads.

[randomnoteforfuturereference]

Alright, here’s a new map of my headcanon Panem with revised boundary placements. The borders themselves still need some refining. But this time, I decided to add some explanation and overview for the districts. I'll admit, this was spurred on a bit by fanficallergy placing her (well-rationalized) headcanon map.

A couple things to note:

The trilogy takes place 200 years after the founding of Panem (202-204 AF to be exact), 400 years after we nuked each other before a bunch of supervolcanos went off, and over 500 years from now.

Climate is similar to ours. In fact, it may actually be cooler on average (just by a couple degrees) than today due to lingering effects of the volcano-induced ice age (known as the Long Winter) and civilization already moving past fossil fuels by the 22nd century; that would carry on through the Cataclysm, Long Winter, and rebuilding period. Whatever the climate, there is no ridiculous swallowing up of land seen by other maps (I'm normally tolerant of other people's ideas, but not when they violate common academic sense).

Numbering stems from the numbers of facilities utilized to safe guard civilization in the event of a catastrophe. These facilities jump started the area that would become Panem.

While the district propers take up large swaths of land and border each other, naturally that isn’t the case for the districts themselves. Some, like the agricultural districts, would actually make full use of the land provided. Others, like D12, sort of speak for themselves. Plus, except for D4, there is no settlement along the coast. Also noted is that these borders are from pre-Dark Days. 

Light gray represents places not part of a district but still officially Panem proper for international maps. Dark gray, to the public, is “Wilderness”. Within that dark gray, there are areas that are actually other nations (it’s why Florida isn’t part of Panem). Two of which are much more prosperous and advanced than Panem; one of which is actually more unpleasant but also several times more populous. But for ease when making this, they aren’t labeled. The NE and California are truly unclaimed due to a mixture of being slagged into a radioactive wasteland and populated by barbarians afterwards.

Anyways, prepare for another lengthy read ahead:

The Capitol: I actually put mine in the Canadian Rockies instead of Colorado/Utah. More specifically, I place it in the middle of Kinbasket Lake. Why? If you look at the topography, the mountains in Canada are way more wall-like than in the US, which creates an effective barrier. Also, the area at the lake that I place the city in is almost a perfect square. The Capitol proper to the west is actually were the arenas were set up. 

In general, I thought it rational that the Career districts were the ones that bordered the Capitol, which is why they were loyal during the Dark Days. 

D1: It’s the second or third least populated district at around 100k. It’s also a district whose industry relies on resources import from other districts or even nations to function, rather than uncovering them itself; precious metals and stones, hardwoods, fabrics, leather, etc. The exception is that the area has perfect land for vitaculture.

D2: Second or third most populous district at around 1 mil. Having it in the Rockies is a gimme. The main city is called Martius City and is located in what used to be Summit County, Colorado, with the facility, known as the Aedes Bellonae by locals and the Nut by rebels, in the range. Why there and not Cheyenne Mountain? Well A) the place has more noticeable avalanche paths, B) Cheyenne would be unsalvageable due to a mixture of a direct nuke hit and the passage of time without maintenance, and C) the scenery looks nicer.

D3: Fourth most populous district at around 750k. Three can be pretty much placed anywhere due to its industry, and I chose the Midwest due to its central location allowing it to contribute R&D for the others easily. Vehicle design for Six, genetic work for the agricultural districts, weapons design for Two, etc.

Oh and why does there look like a massive lake in a section of the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers, with those rivers redirected to the Red? Heh… that’s one of my stranger headcanons that actually was created during the Long Winter via a series of massive dams.

D4: The Pacific NW is a bounty for various types of well-known seafood (Dungenous crab, abalone, salmon, herring, geoduck, oyster, mussels, shrimp, halibut, etc) and seaweed, which is why I chose it over warmer climes. It actually has an additional secret industry in having a trade port in Vancouver Island connecting it to the United Tribal Consortium of the Pacific Northwest, one of two major trade nations Panem borders.

D5: Second or third least populous district at around 100k. The industry of power is one of the things taken from the film canon that I actually accept. The Southwest is perfect as it allows for building of hydroelectric and solar plants, as well as other power plants (mainly fusion) as nobody would want to develop there for other reasons. Also its landscapes are a popular tourist destination for Capitolites. There are actually power plants in other districts, and people from D5 work them; living in isolated compounds in the process. It was a district that was about a enthusiastic about the Rebellion as One was, (ie not really, “but hey why not”) and its inhabitants weren’t idiots that bombed their own dam.

D6: Most populous district with at least 2 million people in its lakeshore cities. It’s not only transportation but heavy industry in general. Because of that, the Rust Belt was the natural place for it to be. Note that after the First Rebellion, its population was bumped up by Thirteeners who weren’t able to flee to the underground complex; because of that and its proximity D13, it’s one of the most diehard rebel districts during the Second Rebellion. And yes, the capital is Detroit… and no, conditions aren’t any better.

D7: The area has a ton of conifer and hardwood forests with a historic lumber industry. 

D8: Historical textile basis. Plus, there’s the whole point about Bonnie and Twill having to go through D12 to get to D6. Added bonus is some historical in-joke with it rebelling and one of its inhabitants becoming president in this new freer nation.

D9: Also going with the film canon for grain. The area sort of speaks for itself, though there's the additional industry of dairy and some other agriculture. Unlike D11, the district’s actually extensively mechanized. 

D10: Nothing represents livestock like Texas and Oklahoma. Going with that, both it and D4 are described as having similar marriage customs; more likely than not, it means they are Catholic weddings (without the theology) due to large Hispanic populations in the Pacific coast and south-central region. It’s also has bases along the southern border to guard against an incursion by the Mesoamerican Empire. These bases (there are some in D5 as well) actually avoided the fighting and surrendered peacefully to Paylor, with the soldiers there retaining their posts to teach newcomers; the same goes for the port towns.

D11: Second or third largest population at around 1 mil. Sort of speaks for itself. Has the additional industry of holding the other port town in Florida; this time to the Confederated States of the Caribbean.

D12: Least populous at 8k pre-Rebellion. The reason I have it so far NE is due to that spot the only place I can find a good source of anthracite; if someone has another good location further down south, please let me know. 

D13: Quebec is pretty much where you can find graphite and uranium. There’s also the culturally distinct element; though the commie part came later. Takes 45 minutes to get to the district itself from D13 by hovercraft but a bit more to get to the facility itself.

So there you have it. I probably missed something and things are still subject to change; though the general placement is more or less set in stone. 

If you have any questions about this or wish to nitpick, don’t hesitate to say something.