Judge Dredd - Dredd's World

Dredd's World

The setting of Judge Dredd takes place in a dystopian future where the Earth has been badly damaged by a series of international conflicts, much of the planet has turned to radioactive wasteland, and so populations have tended to aggregate in enormous conurbations known as 'mega-cities'. The world of Judge Dredd is centred on the megalopolis of Mega-City One, on the east coast of North America. Within Mega-City One, extensive automation (including the creation of a caste of intelligent robots) has rendered the majority of the population unemployed. As a consequence, the general population is prone to embracing any fashion or craze that comes along. Mega-City One is surrounded by the inhospitable "Cursed Earth" desert. Much of the remaining world's geography is somewhat vague, although other mega-cities have been referred to and visited in the strip.

Mega-City One's population lives in gigantic tower blocks known as City Blocks, each holding some fifty thousand or so people. Each is named after some historical person or TV character, usually for comic effect. For example, Joe Dredd used to live in the Rowdy Yates Block – Rowdy Yates was a character in the American TV cowboy drama Rawhide, played by a young Clint Eastwood. Eastwood would later play the lead in Dirty Harry – one of the thematic influences by which Judge Dredd was inspired. A number of stories feature rivalries between different blocks, on many occasions breaking into full-scale gun battles between them (most notably in "Block Mania"). The Judges' extreme powers reflect the difficulty of maintaining any order at all in the Mega-City's stifling environment.

Despite its frequent disasters, Mega-City One stretches from around Boston to Charlotte; it stretched further before the Apocalypse War, which saw widespread death and devastation, the south of the city being entirely wiped out. At its height, the city contained a population of about 800 million; after the Apocalypse War, it averaged at 400 million; following Chaos Day in 2134, the city was reduced to 50 million. The story Origins revealed that Mega-City One was formed because of growing urban sprawl rather than deliberate design, and by 2051 it was recognised as the world's first mega-city.

There are four other major population centres in Dredd's Northern America. The first is Texas City, stretching across several of the southern former United States and with a different culture to its northern cousin, based on Wild West frontier values. South of the city is Mex-City. Far north is Uranium City. Canada remains a nation, now called Canadia, with scattered communities. Until 2114 Mega-City Two also existed on the West Coast, but was destroyed during the world war known as Judgement Day.

Nuclear deserts and destruction elsewhere in the world are also extensive. Much of the north Atlantic is severely polluted, and is now known as the "Black Atlantic." An underwater settlement known as Atlantis exists in the Atlantic, half-way along a tunnel from Mega-City One to Brit-Cit (England).

Nuclear desert also stretches across western Europe. The British Isles are Brit-Cit, Cal-Hab (future Scotland), and Murphyville in Ireland, which has become a country-sized theme park re-creating a stereotypical view of traditional Irish life. The continent has Euro-City (eastern France and part of Germany), Ciudad España (eastern Spain), the Ruhr and Berlin Conurbs in Germany, Vatican City, and a scattering of other megacities and city-states. Russia's East-Meg One was destroyed by Dredd in a massive nuclear strike at the climax of the Apocalypse War in 2104. Further east is East-Meg Two, which has other territories under the "Sov Block" banner. Mongolia, lacking a Mega-City or Judge system, has called itself the Mongolian Free State and criminals have flocked there for a safe haven; East-Meg Two performed vicious clearances there in 2125.

In Asia, separated from East-Meg Two by an extensive nuclear desert, are Sino-City One (destroyed during Judgement Day) and Sino-City Two in eastern China, with Hong Tong built in the remains of Hong Kong and partitioned between Sino-Cit and Brit-Cit control. Hondo City lies on the remains of the islands of Japan. Nu-Delhi (previously Indo-Cit and Delhi-City) is in southern India. Between Hondo and Sino-City lie the Radlands of Ji, a nuclear desert full of chaos magic and many violent outlaw gangs and martial arts schools. Into the Blue Pacific cities survive in south-east Australia or "Oz" (the Sydney-Melbourne Conurbation), the Solomon Islands (Solomon City), Tonga (Friendly City), and the New Pacific City; New Zealand is said to exist as well. All of Indonesia's islands are now linked by a network of mutant coral called "The Web;" this network of islands is a lawless hotbed of crime.

The Middle East is without major cities, being either nuclear or natural deserts, and only the mega-city of Luxor, Egypt has survived; the Mediterranean coast is heavily damaged by mutagens. In Africa much of the south is nuclear desert and the Great African Dustbowl has formed in the north-west, but a large number of nation states have survived in one form or another; Simba City (Gabon), New Jerusalem (Ethiopia), Zambian Metropolitan, and Dar es Salaam are the largest cities. Nuclear fallout and pollution appear to have missed Antarctica and the Arctic, causing one mega-city (Antarctic City) to have been constructed there.

The high levels of pollution have created instances of mutation in humans and animals. The mega-cities largely operate on a system of genetic apartheid, making expulsion from the cities the worst punishment possible. Mega-City One ended apartheid in the 2130s, but encourages mutants to move to Cursed Earth townships instead of remaining in the city.

Earth's moon has been colonised, with a series of large domes forming Luna City; another colony, Puerto Luminae, exists but is a lawless, violent hellhole. In addition many deep space colonies have been established. Some are loyal to various mega cities, while many are independent states, and others still face violent insurgencies to gain independence. The multi-national Space Corps battles both insurgencies and external alien threats. The newly discovered planet Hestia (which orbits the Sun near to but at 90 degrees to Earth's orbit) has a colony, there are some references to colonies on Mars such as Viking City, Saturn's moon Titan has a judicial penal colony, and Mega-City One is known to have deep space missile silos on Pluto.