The World of Argi the Etarra

 *Timeline of events: July 1990- September of 1999*

THE BASQUE COUNTRY

• Bilbao is a cyberpunk dystopia similar to Blade Runner and Escape from New York, whereas the rural areas are reminiscent of the dark foggy European countryside seen in horror movies like Dracula and Frankenstein. The weather is usually dark, grey and rainy with maybe brief periods of sun
• Spain basically uses the Basque Country as its industrial dumping ground. Mecha and robotics manufacturing is huge, followed by automotive and chemical, leading to a lot of toxic substances in the environment
• Bilbao is also a hotspot for cheap enhancements and bionic augmentation in Spain/Europe, ranging from high end, top-of-the-line clinics to carnicerias/harategiak. Very common to see people with prosthetics/bionic parts in varying qualities. Inigo prefers his body powered hook because his bionic one kept glitching out and he felt that it wasn't as precise when handling delicate parts. "Enhancements" are basically concentrated superpowers that without proper supervision and control, can turn into a crippling addiction, the resulting victims becoming carne usada/erabiaragiak (literally means used meat), often ending up in negative quality of life and death as with regular drugs.
• A carniceria, or harategia in Basque, is the name given to unlicensed enhancement clinics found in the poorer areas of Bilbao. They are usually dirty, poorly managed, and have very little oversight.
• There also exist rehabilitation centers for people with enhancement addictions akin to mental asylums. Their original purpose was to help patients control their powers, but nowadays, they are just used to keep addicts off the street and are sometimes used as test subjects. Andoni was sent to one of these rehab centers by his brother, but escaped two weeks into his stay.
• Great wealth disparity is the norm. Not uncommon to see protests, strikes and riots, usually subdued by the Ertzaintza, the Basque police force. Basque youth is severely disaffected and turn to drugs and enhancements, making them prime targets for ETA and GAL to give them purpose/fight their battles
• ETA, stands for Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, a Basque separatist group founded on Marxist and nationalist principles. It wages a violent campaign of bombings, kidnappings, and assassinations over the Basque Country in order to gain independence. At some point, the group was taken over by a superintelligent extraterrestrial kitten who transformed it into Euskadi Ta AsKATUsuna, giving the terrorists the illusion of fighting for freedom for the Basque people, when in reality, they will be enslaved by cats.
• GAL, standing for Grupos Antiterroristas de Liberacion/Antiterrorist Liberation Groups, is a loose affiliation of several far right death squads funded by the Spanish government to combat ETA. Mostly made up of far-right mercenaries and former civil servants that served under Franco, they are tasked to attack ETA members (both known and suspected) and other Basque nationalist targets, which quickly turned into a covert dirty war rife with sabotage on both sides.
• Between toxic chemicals and unregulated enhancement usage, the Basque Country has a high rate of mutants, both naturally born and created. Those with desirable powers and mostly normal looks are often brought into superhero programs around Spain and Europe, while the deformed are literally sent underground. Nights are deadly in certain areas because some mutants have turned cannibalistic and hunt normal humans- kind of like the Crazies in Escape from New York.
• LGBT are gradually becoming accepted, but it still carries an air of stigma, especially in the rural areas- reason why Andoni gets extremely flustered when Argi points out his crushes on Franco Nero and Iker

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SPAIN

• Despite a decade of democratization, the Spanish government still struggles with reining in separatist groups, namely ETA, DRIL from Galicia and Terra Lliure from Catalonia. To combat them, the majority of government funding are allocated to the Guardia Civil and other autonomous polices forces in the states. They also give carte blanche to paramilitary squads like GAL for extra assistance.
• Officials are facing a lot of pressure from the global community due to the actions against the Basque people, thus hindering their acceptance into the European Union.
• Has a tacit agreement between all the many separatist groups not to use supers or at least mutants/augmented humans of notable power- concerns are raised when Andoni is seen participating in ETA activities.
• There is a sizable population of humanoid bovines in the country called Taureans. They appear identical to humans, aside from their larger sizes and traits taken from the Spanish Fighting Bull such as horns on both males and females, cow-like ears, tails and short tempers. Like their animal brethren, Taureans are traditionally involved in the corrida/bullfighting, even marrying exclusively into bullfighting family lines. The two largest Taurean populations are in Andalusia (around Seville and Ronda) and Navarra (around Pamplona).

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THE REST OF THE WORLD IN GENERAL

• Androids of the replicant variety are popular as servants, usually in hazardous work and "pleasure"- prostitution and pornography. Many Voight-Kampff checkpoints are around to scan for them as they are banned from most human areas and occupations.
• Clones are only for the elite. Most of the time, they are just used to replace their host's body parts, but some ultra rich have taken to cloning their pets, extinct animals and even celebrities and historical figures as a status symbol. These celebrity clones differ from androids in that actual host DNA is used to create them as opposed to making them look like said celebrity.
• Supers are fairly common, although making up a small percentage of the global population.
• Science is highly advanced in this timeline, space travel and contact with extraterrestrials have happened. In spite of the advances, quality of life is still extremely poor in pockets.
• Each country has a super that represents the country and its values.
• The Burritolandia universe encompasses both the Marvel and DC universes and characters will pop up on occasion...or their non-copyright versions