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Rebuilding Under the Dome: How Power, Wealth, and Control Shape Recovery (A post apocalyptic D&D fantasy setting)

Rebuilding does not follow suffering.
It follows money.

When winter chaos storms tear across the Dome and reality buckles under their force, destruction is widespread — but recovery is not. When the storms recede and the lights stabilize, reconstruction does not begin where the damage was worst.

It begins where the investment was highest.

Because Under the Dome, survival is not triage.
It is asset management.

The powerful do not rebuild because people are hurting.
They rebuild because something valuable is at risk.

Recovery Is a Luxury Service

The first districts repaired after winter chaos are always the same:

• Financial centers

• Baron-controlled neighborhoods

• Guild enclaves

• Infrastructure that supports trade, surveillance, and control

Repair crews arrive quickly. Supplies are abundant. Power returns without debate.

Meanwhile, poorer districts wait.

Not because resources are scarce —
but because they are not profitable yet.

Damage in these areas is classified as:

• Non-critical

• Temporarily acceptable

• Self-correcting

This is Dome language for expendable.

Slums Expand by Design, Not by Accident

Slums do not grow because the Dome failed.

They grow because the Dome allows them to.

After winter:

• Displaced families are redirected instead of rehoused

• Unsafe structures are ignored until collapse becomes inevitable

• “Temporary” shelters quietly become permanent

• Aid is replaced with permits, inspections, and fees

Slums function as pressure valves — places where desperation can be contained, monitored, and exploited.

They are not mistakes.

They are features.

DM Insight: Poor districts are not forgotten — they are deprioritized. That distinction changes how NPCs speak, act, and justify their cruelty.

Elites Rebuild Through Hoarding

Winter chaos harms everyone, but only the wealthy are allowed to recover strategically.

In the aftermath, elites consolidate:

• Buying out failed rivals

• Acquiring abandoned or condemned properties

• Stockpiling scarce materials

• Tightening control over supply chains

Public repair projects stall.
Private reconstruction accelerates.

Entire neighborhoods remain half-ruined because restoring them would not increase leverage.

Under the Dome, nothing is rebuilt unless someone can profit from it.

Labor Is Extracted, Not Offered

When rebuilding finally reaches poorer districts, it arrives with conditions.

Aid comes disguised as:

• Debt-backed assistance

• Forced or exploitative labor contracts

• “Volunteer” reconstruction with penalties for refusal

• Privatized utilities requiring long-term buy-in

People do not rebuild their homes.

They rebuild infrastructure that benefits someone else, hoping scraps will follow.

Reconstruction becomes just another transaction —
and transactions always favor those who set the terms.

Hope Is the Real Casualty

Winter teaches a brutal lesson:

Need does not guarantee help.

In neglected districts, people adapt quickly:

• They stop asking

• They stop trusting

• They stop believing recovery is meant for them

Survival becomes smaller.
More local.
More desperate.

Communities rebuild themselves only because no one else will — and even then, every success is watched carefully for anything worth appropriating.

Using This Mindset at the Table

Recovery under the Dome should feel deliberate, not tragic. This is not neglect. It is policy.

For Dungeon Masters

• Show aid arriving where it is least needed

• Let players witness full repairs across barricades

• Turn rebuilding into a political negotiation, not a moral one

• Force players to choose between helping people or gaining leverage

Mechanical Ideas

• Repairs gated by wealth, influence, or faction favor

• Community upgrades requiring sponsorship

• Slum districts that generate both danger and opportunity

• Reputation penalties for helping the “wrong” people

For Players

• Decide who your character believes deserves saving

• Ask what you are willing to trade for stability

• Consider whether fixing something makes it vulnerable to exploitation

Closing Thought

Under the Dome, winter does not test compassion.

It tests capital.

When the storms end, the city does not rebuild what was broken —
it rebuilds what is worth owning.

Everything else is left to rot, adapt, or disappear.

And if people survive in the cracks long enough, the Dome eventually notices.

Not because they suffered.

But because they might be useful.

Thanks for reading. Until next time — stay nerdy!!