.plot.

In 2015, an operation known as "Dark Winter" was launched which was a real-world exercise that tested the emergency response to a bioterror attack on the United States. The simulation spiraled out of control within a few days, and predicted a "breakdown in essential institutions," civil disorder, and massive civilian casualties. The operation facilitated the creation of the Division.

On Black Friday 2022, a viral epidemic, transmitted by a smallpox-based virus planted on banknotes, sweeps through New York City. The disease, known as "Green Poison" or the "Dollar Flu", causes widespread chaos, and major cities across the United States are placed under quarantine.

Quarantined after the initial surge of smallpox outbreak, New York quickly shut down its bridges and tunnels, and ushered in federal troops to help city police quell growing panic. With their airspace closed and a naval blockade cutting off all waterways, New Yorkers soon felt isolated, trapped, even abandoned. Civil unrest began to spiral out of control.

Facing the collapse of law and order, the United States government activates sleeper agents in the population who work for the Strategic Homeland Division (SHD; or simply "the Division"), to assist the Joint Task Force (JTF)—a combined task force of police, fire and rescue, National Guard, disaster response organizations, and civilian volunteers—in restoring order. However, the entire first wave of agents deployed to New York City goes AWOL, forcing the deployment of a second wave.

The second wave are preparing to deploy to Brooklyn when the aircraft meant to take them there explodes, killing the Division Commander and most of the second wave. Several other agents, deploying from a JTF helicopter instead, reclaim the James A. Farley Building to use as their base of operations. From there, the agents undertake assignments to assist and rescue personnel, restore the base to full working capacity, and combat New York City's dominant criminal groups: the Rioters, common street thugs attempting to take advantage of the quarantine; the Rikers, sadistic escapees from Rikers Island; and the Cleaners, Department of Sanitation employees who seek to "purify" whatever they deem infected using incendiary weapons. The agents eventually recover a sample of Green Poison, and learns it was manufactured and modified by a known controversial biologist. They also learn of rogue first wave Division agents who broke down and defected alongside Last Man Battalion (LMB), a private military company that has been deemed hostile to the Division.

_{Remember, this is just a foundation for the roleplay. Things can be removed, added, and changed to the needs of the players.}

.locations.

N.Y.C. Base of Operations - Located in Pennsylvania Plaza, the James Farley Post Office was converted by the Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency (CERA) into a contamination screening station and later into the Joint Task Force's (JTF) main base of operations with Division support. It has Roman pillars, a long staircase and blue CERA banners, as well as ramparts with the JTF logo. The post office is occupied by a garrison of Joint Task Force soldiers and civilians utilizing its various facilities. It is located roughly 500 meters from Camp Hudson, which is the primary staging area for the JTF.

Safe Houses - Safe Houses are a small sanctuary for civilians, JTF members, and Division agents alike to rest and recharge away from the dangers of New York City. There are two basic types of safe house: those in Manhattan (the Light Zone) and those in the Dark Zone.

Normal Safe Houses are locations set up and manned by the JTF to provide localized support to personnel in the field, as well as basic/temporary shelter for some civilians.

There are also safe houses within the Dark Zone, though they are run by individual Division agents rather than the JTF.

N.Y.C. Dark Zone - The Dark Zone is a large untamed region in the heart of Manhattan, quarantined from the rest of the already-quarantined borough. This "no man's land" is filled with countless bodies, some of the most ruthless and dangerous enemies in the city, and lots of abandoned hardware and gear left behind by the authorities who couldn't maintain control. Only those Division agents courageous enough and well-equipped enough should consider braving the region to recover the equipment still inside, assuming they don't run into any of those who have disavowed The Division.

Originally this quarantine zone in the middle of Manhattan was heavily patrolled by the Joint Task Force and was created under the Government Order to ensure that those infected with the Green Poison virus could be contained.

However, the growing number of riots and supply shortages forced them to pull out, leaving behind much of their valuable gear, and abandoning many of The Division's First Wave of agents to fend for themselves. The Dark Zone is now mostly empty, lawless and basically an isolated zone; outside communication is limited, and dangerous gangs roam the streets in brutal conflict, fighting over the remainders. Many of New York City's iconic/famous landmarks are in the Dark Zone; the Empire State Building, Rockefeller center, Radio City Music Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Plaza Hotel, and Trump Tower.

.factions.

Cleaners - The Cleaners are New York City sanitation workers-garbageman, public facility janitors, park custodians, street cleaners, water treatment plant operators, etc. - whose jobs in better times were devoted to keeping neighborhoods and infrastructure clean. Many commuted to work from outside the city but got trapped in the urban quarantine zones during the early days of the plague. Others were inner-city dwellers who lost loved ones during the outbreak.

Responding to what they perceived as the shameful failure of local and federal authorities to protect their health and families, a number of these blue-collar city workers banded together to take matters into their own hands. The Cleaners aimed to eradicate the mutant smallpox virus. Their chosen method of killing is donning flamethrowers fueled by napalm. The Cleaners incinerated anything and anyone suspected of carrying the disease. This often included perfectly healthy survivors exposed to the virus.

The fanatical faction was initially hindered by CERA's quarantine lines and checkpoints. But nobody knew the bowels of the burrow - the sewers, drainage tunnels, and subway lines like the Cleaners. Armed with flamethrowers, fire axes, firebombs, and firearms, they traversed the city's underground passages, bypassing roadblocks and perimeter barricades with ease. Their philosophy was to burn everything that had contact with the virus.

Their faction spread quickly, driven by the belief that "the sick are already dead". One file recovered from the Cleaners' headquarters site revealed phone-video footage of a civilian captured and burnt alive by a Cleaner. All Division agents learned to proceed with extra caution in Cleaner-occupied territories, often identified by the presence of the faction's distinctive yellow garbage trucks, burning piles of corpses, and charred streets.

Last Man Battalion (known as LMB) - They are a private military company. Comprised almost entirely of former operators from the Army's premier light infantry unit, the 75th Ranger Regiment and the CIA's much feared Special Operations Group, the LMB employs some of the most highly trained and lethal mercenary contractors in the world.

After the bioweapon attack, several panicked Wall Street financial firms immediately hired the LMB to protect their servers and high-value physical assets stored onsite in their Lower Manhattan vaults. Worn and battle-weary, the rank and file soldiers found themselves recalled from hazardous overseas duty only to be diverted into the viral maelstrom of the deadliest urban catastrophe in modern history.

As panic in the Financial District spiraled further out of control, LMB began to clash with local authorities. They considered them pathetically weak and indecisive, hamstrung by ludicrous restrictions that had no place in an actual war zone. When the quarantine was established and the JTF pulled back to their main base in Midtown, the LMB found itself cut off and abandoned.

Several days of savage street fighting convinced the LMB that the only course of action left was to retake New York City themselves and establish a new martial order via brute force. After a fierce disagreement with an imperious JTF liaison, LMB not only disobeyed the official's direct orders but executed the man.

Rogue - Former Division agents who disavowed the Strategic Homeland Division for one reason or another, and has either lent their services to another faction such as the Last Man Battalion or are working on their own, both cases working against The Division itself.

For an agent, to turn their back on The Division is to commit treason against the United States federal government; yet, it is the freedom and relative autonomy with which agents operate that gives them the potential to turn renegade. Most rogue agents are presumed to have come about following the Joint Task Force's disastrous handling of the Dark Zone.

Rogue First Wave agents are determined to take advantage of a city in chaos, these traitors to the Division are willing to kill their own to take what they want. Highly trained and murderously efficient, they see the pandemic as an opportunity. With the best skills, tech, and training in the city, they're the most dangerous predators on Manhattan's streets.

The Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) - They are referred to as The Division, is a classified unit of highly trained, self-supported tactical agents.

They are fully autonomous field operatives trained to restore order to communities suffering from catastrophic events, institutional collapse, and societal breakdown. Division agents are embedded in society, leading ordinary lives until they are activated. The Division is not an elite unit in the traditional military sense. They are a civilian agency whose members do not train or deploy like military units. Elite military forces are trained for specific tasks with a completely different mission specification than that of The Division. The Division is made unique by being an autonomous networked organization. It is The Division as a whole that is special, not necessarily each individual agent. Officially, agents of The Division are counted as federal agents, in direct service of the United States federal government.

The Strategic Homeland Division (SHD) is a decentralized, autonomous entity endowed with executive powers and rules of engagement unfettered by legal constraints. Trained to operate in deadly CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) environments, The Division is mandated to bring order, stability and justice to communities shattered by catastrophic events. The agency also pledges active support to classified Continuity of Government plans should a widespread national disaster cripple normal governing functions.

Their motto is: Extremis Malis Extrema Remedia (Literal translation is "Extreme Evil, Extreme Remedy". More commonly translated as the proverb, "Desperate times call for desperate measures").

The Rikers - When the Green Poison outbreak disrupted public services in New York City, a temporary citywide power outage engulfed all five boroughs, including the notorious prison complex on Rikers Island. Taking advantage of the blackout, inmates overpowered the guards and a mass breakout sent dozens of dangerous felons pouring into Queens then over the East River bridges into Manhattan. Ironically, shortly after their arrival, the escapees found themselves essentially imprisoned on another island, this time by the CERA (Catastrophic Emergency Response Agency) quarantine of the borough.

Trapped in the Manhattan anarchy, this crew of hardened criminals viewed the city as a new Wild West where they could take whatever they wanted, including revenge on the law enforcement elements that put them in jail. The Rikers quickly filled the power vacuum left by the JTF withdrawal from the streets, seizing control of entire neighborhoods ruling like urban warlords.

The gang had a primary objective: Kill everyone in a uniform, especially the New York City Police, which had been folded into the Joint Task Force. Since many Rikers Island inmates belonged to local New York gangs, the prison gang's ranks grew quickly as attracted more local followers. In the Resistance of West Side Pier, the Rikers have formed an uneasy but common alliance with the surviving hostile factions to make a stand against The Division and JTF.

The Rioters - They are gangs of common thugs and delinquents that just want to rob and even kill others to ensure their own survival. Many know they can kill but will use that as a final option, but some will pull the trigger first. They are arguably the least organized faction in the Division series overall, being split into gangs and having little to no leadership.

Division rubric refers to civilians who've chosen a lawless path to survival as "Rioters." These are typically unorganized looters who roam the city in small packs, preying on the weak to survive. In response to growing scarcity and the declining presence of law enforcement, Rioters simply take what they want from those unable to defend themselves. This threat is exacerbated by the fact that, in the United States, military-grade firearms are so plentiful that Rioters are often heavily armed.

Most Rioters are simply opportunists - ordinary people of all stripes who've been pushed to criminal activity by panic and greed. Instead of signing on to the social compact and working in a cooperative manner for the betterment of all, Rioters victimize others. In such cases, the Division's task is to ensure serious negative consequences for choosing this route.

Rioters have few if any loyalties, and no organization to speak of. However, they do form loose associations with likeminded opportunists when it suits them, or out of necessity. But any alliance is short-lived; the only thing that matters for them is raw survival and the next meal.