Darker Than Black takes place on Earth– or rather, an alternate universe of our current Earth. The countries are the same as of a time period circa 2006-2007. However, the biggest difference is that 10 years prior to the initial setting, a war labeled as "Heaven's War" was occurring in South America. It's never quite stated why the war started, but many countries were taking part in it. 5 years into the war (and prior to the canon timeline), two scientific anomalies occurred. These anomalies were labeled "Heaven's Gate" and "Hell's Gate", appearing in South America and Japan respectively. Most of the prior events that are brought up in canon (references to the War) are set in South America. Besides the war, the appearance of the Gates began to affect great changes.
Before getting into the changes, though, some clarification on the Gates themselves: they're less of a physical "gate" and more a sectioned off piece of land. Within the section, unexplainable things happen– people hallucinate, they go crazy, bodies show up, those thought previously dead re-appear, people kill each other, etc. There's no real limit, canon-wise, to what can happen in the realm of the Gates. It's mentioned in the series that it's a place where wishes could come true. Whether that's factual or not is never really clarified to a certain extent.
As previously mentioned, the Gates seemed to provoke changes in the environment and the human race. For one, the sky itself became a hallucination of sorts, with the real stars and atmosphere disappearing. Taking the stars place are new stars that corresponded to what become dubbed as "Contractors". Contractors are people who develop a supernatural set of powers (ability to use sonic sound waves, anti-gravity, etc). Moreover, each Contractor is usually identified with a specific fake star and Messier catalogue number. When they use their powers, the star reacts and in turn, if they die, the star falls. A sub set of people with passive abilities also appear (known as Dolls); they can be programmed, and are more used for long reaching surveillance. Most of them communicate or "see" via contact with such things like water or glass (like a scrying mirror). Furthermore, Dolls don't have to pay the "price" (ranging from dog-earing book pages to breaking their own fingers) that Contractors (true to their moniker) must pay after using their powers. Instead, the trade off is that Dolls don't have as much of a will of their own and usually have to be instructed or pointed in the correct direction. Both sets of supernaturally gifted people usually end up working together in missions, balancing each other out. They also tend to be hired by secret service operations (MI6, CIA) due to the fact that neither Contractors nor Dolls feel as much emotion anymore, showing no regret when murdering in cold blood as they base all of their decisions on logic and self-preservation.
WORLD SETTING/BACKGROUND
Before getting into the changes, though, some clarification on the Gates themselves: they're less of a physical "gate" and more a sectioned off piece of land. Within the section, unexplainable things happen– people hallucinate, they go crazy, bodies show up, those thought previously dead re-appear, people kill each other, etc. There's no real limit, canon-wise, to what can happen in the realm of the Gates. It's mentioned in the series that it's a place where wishes could come true. Whether that's factual or not is never really clarified to a certain extent.
As previously mentioned, the Gates seemed to provoke changes in the environment and the human race. For one, the sky itself became a hallucination of sorts, with the real stars and atmosphere disappearing. Taking the stars place are new stars that corresponded to what become dubbed as "Contractors". Contractors are people who develop a supernatural set of powers (ability to use sonic sound waves, anti-gravity, etc). Moreover, each Contractor is usually identified with a specific fake star and Messier catalogue number. When they use their powers, the star reacts and in turn, if they die, the star falls. A sub set of people with passive abilities also appear (known as Dolls); they can be programmed, and are more used for long reaching surveillance. Most of them communicate or "see" via contact with such things like water or glass (like a scrying mirror). Furthermore, Dolls don't have to pay the "price" (ranging from dog-earing book pages to breaking their own fingers) that Contractors (true to their moniker) must pay after using their powers. Instead, the trade off is that Dolls don't have as much of a will of their own and usually have to be instructed or pointed in the correct direction. Both sets of supernaturally gifted people usually end up working together in missions, balancing each other out. They also tend to be hired by secret service operations (MI6, CIA) due to the fact that neither Contractors nor Dolls feel as much emotion anymore, showing no regret when murdering in cold blood as they base all of their decisions on logic and self-preservation.