Limbo

Limbo is a series of caverns carved out below a specific location in the American midwest. After being discovered by the Great Church in the late 90s, the location of Limbo was kept as a closely-guarded secret for several years. When a digging operation threatened to expose the central cavern, the Church took the land by force— a military act that led to the Church's eventual takeover of other locations in the central United States. Since then, the Church has made use of Limbo for its special properties, allowing them to keep an iron grip over the population in their territory and expand their control to new territories as well. However, unbeknownst to the Church, the abandoned population of Limbo has banded together with countries outside of the Church's influence to become a central base for anti-Church sentiment and revolt.   Limbo is a proverbial dumping ground for the "undesireables" of the Church— queer people, diverse cultural identities, informants for outside territories, and anybody engaging in anti-Church activities— that allows the Church to better maintain its choke hold over the ideology of the surface. By marking certain citizens as "Pilgrims," the Church cleverly remove them from society while maintaining the stance that the abandoned underground population is themselves keeping society safe from monsters. There are, of course, ways to escape from Limbo. But most of Limbo's citizens are unable or unwilling to leave for two reasons. First, any Newmoon human that enters Limbo will eventually be transformed into a monster; the very same "monsters" that the Church claims to be sending Pilgrims to fight against. Second, Limbo is the only place within the strict borders of the Great Church that allows for these undesired people to thrive. Queer identity, diverse identity, and anti-Church ideology thrive in Limbo's expansive society, making it a very appealing place to live for anybody emotionally and socially stifled by the Great Church.   And recently, there has been talk of destroying the Church from the inside once and for all.