Purgatory is set in an alternate timeline to our own, with some significant differences. Humanity has developed faster at this point in time, both in terms of technology and biology. The result of this ended up being the rise of the phenomenon known as the 'Diamond Brain' - (explained more in the eponymous section). In short, a selection of people whose brains are highly advanced, but only in certain aspects unique to each person.

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What had not improved however was political rule. Arguments about the optimal way to govern society reached extreme points, with people arguing over asking for perfection or nothing at all. Especially in an era where humans were developing into superhumans, unrest in society became more prominent as they showed more prowess in certain fields over those without abilities. Eventually an idea was put forth to attempt to solve, or at least experiment with, this problem.

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The Two Cities Experiment.

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Two cities were planned and built on a man-made island off the coast of England. The island itself was named the Island of Tolentino, after Saint Nicholas of Tolentino, a saint of the souls of Purgatory. The cities were originally dubbed as the Blue City and the Red City.

Blue was built to the level of perfection devised from an incredible amount of research. It was set up with the 'ideal' government and was given a selected, fair and non-judgemental ruler. The basis for said government came as a compromise between several global politicians.

Red however was built with only the architecture in mind. Once it was complete, no government was put in place. The idea was to allow those who lived here to run off of pure anarchy and moral judgement. 

As soon as they were ready, those across the world who were registered with a diamond brain ability were invited, along with family and loved ones, to live in either one of these cities by their choice. 

As more people flocked to the cities, the culture developed and eventually led to the renaming of the two cities to better suit them: Blue became Nirvana and Red became Gehenna. 

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The early days of Gehenna saw the city overrun by gangs claiming territories. Overtime though, gangs began to dwindle in number and power. This was due to the rise of Lucifer Broadcasting, allied with the arrival of the Vittore family mafia, which sought to seize control and maintain a vague sense of order. Gangs still exist, but are rare and small in size.

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The first Prime Minister of Nirvana, Judah Cariot, had a long run, but was eventually assassinated by a mysterious figure. The culprit was never caught, but information was leaked to reveal that Judah and his personal assistant Lichtuen Eleuterio Perez were both terribly corrupt, having dealings with gangs in Gehenna to carry out certain shady dealings This included smuggling drugs, carrying out hits and theft among other things. The second and current Prime Minister, Mischa Volkov, was promoted from their council position quickly after to replace him. The rest of the council positions were also replaced with new people.

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