The Wastes

Throughout the history of The Union, a legend has been told, though The Council has edited parts of it, of The Wastes, the land surrounding the cities of The Union. The version that The Council allows is that centuries ago, in an age of ignorance and confusion, the world was greatly divided by war, hunger, greed, and horrible political strife even between people of the same country. Though they had great resources, they were unable to use them for any good because no one agreed or trusted anyone else. Eventually people reached a point where they simply began to destroy each other rather than try to get along, and with the horrible weapons of the age they destroyed most of the land that existed on Earth, turning it into the land seen from the cities and the transports between them, nothing but wilderness and desolation. The few people who survived took what surviving resources that they could and formed themselves into the first Council, where they would all trust each other and work for the good of The People, and so The Union began.
The Risen, however, have uncovered enough evidence recorded by those who lived during that time to figure out the true story. At the time there was indeed much strife, both between peoples and between nations, but there was also much work being done to try and find peace, and many countries had formed alliances to ensure mutual safety and to help boost trade, interaction, and understanding between their countries and peoples. But the original members of the first Council had formed their own plans. They were people from all over the world who wished to create the perfect utopia, believing themselves to be the few greatest minds of the age. They had worked themselves into the many major governments and organizations upon whom depended the continuing peace on most of the Earth, and once their pieces were all in place, they acted. It is not known what specifically they did to cause every major country on earth to launch their missiles and declare war on each other, though it is possible they used a cruder version of the brainwashing used today to create chaos when the time came. All that is known is that they were fully prepared for the consequences. Recordings from certain members explain how each division of the organization had created giant bunkers in secret where they could live for a year or more to last out the bloodbath, and when they came out, there was nothing but destruction for leagues. Having also prepared for the lack of transportation, each minor division had also created secret landing strips in the wilds or jungles of their land, which they reached by using the mass transport helicopters kept in their bunkers. They all flew to the main base, which could house thousands of people, and they started creating their world, The Union, though most of the work force was made up of the survivors that were located after all of The First Council had gathered in the main bunker, which would eventually form the base of the capitol city, Unity.
This information was originally recorded by members who had been chosen to be members of The First Council but who had been sickened when they heard the true plan. But they could not leave, for fear of being killed to keep the secret hidden from the world. Thus they were saved from the destruction, but when all the people gathered they took advantage of the confusion to escape with those people who would follow them. They gathered those survivors they could find and started life in the ruins of towns and cities, keeping themselves secret from the rising Union, watching as it grew, gathering resources and people until they could begin to work in secret to free people from those who claimed to be their saviors, establishing different branches in or near each city as it was built. These were the founders of The Risen. There were other people who survived but were not taken in by The Union or found by The Risen, and thus started their own countries, though the learned quickly not to live anywhere near The Union, who would kill any Outsiders, as they became known as, that they found. Large "tribes" of Outsiders eventually created technology of their own that allowed them to conduct raids on the transports to gather resources, though unlike The Risen they did not care about secrecy or the safety of others. Some of the most daring even raid some of the Spheres, with City 66 having the worst trouble, as it is on the very outskirts of The Union's territory.