While Charles Kirby’s presidential term was largely considered uninspiring across the board, there was one major success he was able to point to—the successful rescue of fourteen students and forced ending of the eight iteration of SOTF. This was done through a joint operation of Interpol and the United States Army. This major success saw severe disruption to the Arthro Taskforce, with many members being killed, including senior figures Jim Greynolds and Steven Wilson. The surge in popular support saw President Kirby decide against his initial plan to only be a one term transitional president to bring normalcy back to America, and instead run for reelection against former President Jarod Canon.
This campaign did not go well, with President Kirby rarely making public appearances and frequently misspeaking or suffering embarrassing gaffes when he did. Meanwhile, Canon stuck to his largely tried and tested rhetoric. Eventually, Kirby decided to step aside and his Vice-President Marisa D'Cruz became the new Democratic nominee, a move which reinvigorated the Democratic campaign.
This reinvigoration was not enough however, and Canon stormed back into the White House following the 2024 election, bringing with him the same broad promises and aims as his first term, along with some concerns as to how far he may be able to go in his second term.
- The year in V9 is 2025. Pregame spans the spring semester, from the first day back from Christmas (January 7th) until the kidnapping, which will take place at the end of the school year.
- Pregame will be taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, and students will be attending Southwest Red Rock High School. More detailed information about the school can be found here.
- For the most part, SOTF follows along with the real world. Disasters, terrorist attacks, recessions, fashion trends, film releases, etc. are all the same as IRL. Note that as pregame is beginning slightly in the future, we ask that people refrain from inventing events taking place in the wider world, to maintain consistency going forward. Once the real world catches up with the game feel free to reference real world events.
- SOTF has not recurred since 2021, and the government has dropped its state of high alert following the interruption and successful stopping of V8.
- Following the successful joint operation of Interpol and the American Army which lead to the large destruction of parts of the AT, the official Interpol investigation was wrapped up and those working on it reassigned. The American government has declared the mission accomplished, and were pleased to officially announce that the threat of the AT had passed. Despite this, some members of the AT who were not apprehended, including Tracen Danya, still have international notices out for their arrest.
- Senior trips, which had all but disappeared nationwide in the wake of V7, have slowly begun to reappear across the nation. The US government, which previously oversaw security of trips where possible, have rapidly scaled this back citing budgetary reasons. John Endecott Memorial Academy still no longer runs end of year trips, and has also stopped running winter trips for seniors following V8. Bayview Secondary School and Aurora High School continue to hold the trips out of tradition, while Cochise High School and George Hunter High School have discontinued them.
- The fate of the known survivors of the 2015 destruction of STAR is still in limbo, while people were hopeful that Kirby would be able to move the issue along, it seems to have rapidly fallen down the long line of concerns and most have stopped following the story.
- There may also be rumors about SOTF survivors who didn't get caught up in the fall of STAR (i.e. the surviving characters who canonically left STAR or went their own way without joining up), but these are unconfirmed unless some such person chooses to come forward. If an active handler from that era wants to have their survivor do something major, they should contact the staff team with their plan to work out how that would happen, to make sure it fits with established canon.
- Recordings of SOTF continue to circulate online, primarily through torrents and sites akin to LiveLeak, being much more readily available than in years past due to a lapse in government efforts to remove them. The cultural status of the recordings is roughly equivalent to graphic execution footage. It is easily accessible, but carries a serious stigma, and the government still makes the occasional, token effort to shut down host sites, and there are periodic rumors that looking it up is a great way to land on FBI watch-lists.
- While SOTF merchandising has all but disappeared outside of a few fringe/counter-cultural groups, it has since given away to a significant number of illegal gambling rings profiting off of the incidents, many of which first began operating in the wake of V6. While some of these were shut down by the government, the vast majority were taken out by a combination of factors, including various cryptocurrency exchange crashes and the stoppage of V8 while it was in progress, causing SOTF betting sites various losses that many could not overcome and forcing their closure. A small few still exist and operate, while other entrepreneurs lacking in morals will surely start up their own site should SOTF return.
- There continue to be a number of local memorials, especially in the areas affected by the kidnappings. In light of the number of incidents and the total number of lives lost over the years, US Congress recognized the unofficial holiday of SOTF Remembrance Day (July 19th) as a public holiday in 2019.
- Battle Royale and The Hunger Games still do not exist in the SOTF universe, nor do derivative works. Please don't reference them in-character.
- If your character has any notable experience with SOTF clips/footage, it should be in their profile and should be closely considered and justified--the days of SOTF fandom are long past by the time these characters are at an appropriate age to be aware of such things, and being a "fan" of SOTF is like being a fan of beheading videos.
- If you have any reason to reference SOTF continuity within posts, a good rule of thumb is as follows: Anything from V4 onward is fair game unless it's blatantly impossible. Anything from V1-3 is true in broad brushstrokes (names of killers and victims, kill counts and death order, who won, etc.) but anything that would not be acceptable by today's standards (coming from Arkham Asylum, pregame murders, etc.) should not be referenced.
