Popular Culture Review Volume 29, Number 2, Summer 2018 | Page 59

Popular Culture Review 29.2
bolically . The plague does not occur naturally but has been introduced into the city by Royal Spymaster Hiram Burrows , who eventually orchestrates the assassination of Jessamine Kaldwin and rules , corruptly , in her place before Corvo gets revenge . Burrows wanted to handle Dunwall ’ s poverty problems by killing the poor through the plague , an unspeakable evil that leads to a plague that spreads out of control and has decimated the overall population by half . Michael Eisenstein writes of the spread of plague and disease around the globe , “ Cities can also provide greater opportunities for infectious diseases to flourish . Crowding and poor or nonexistent infrastructure exacerbate the risk of infectious disease to slum inhabitants in particular ” ( 1 ). Although many of Dunwall ’ s citizens have died , the wealthy have avoided the issues of overcrowding and lack of resources found in the poor parts of the city and have thus increased thThe disparity and disease permeating life in Dunwall find their best expression when the player visits the area of the city called The Flooded District . The Heart comments of this area that “ they bring the bodies here . With rough hands . Rough hands and cages . Some of them are still breathing . The water is so cold , and it is the last thing they feel ,” referring to the dumping ground the area has become to those infected by the plague . The Flooded District , ravaged from a previous flood , lies to the south of the city , far from the relative wealth of the north district . The abject misery and poverty of those still living in The Flooded District call into sharp relief that the wealthy are relatively isolated from the horrors of the plague , while everyone else lives in filth and fear , separated both economically and geographically from the safer sections of Dunwall .
In the run-up to the first game ’ s release , IGN created a site that presented additional background to the game ’ s world , fictional accounts written from the point of view of those
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