Vaguely poking at an alternate history type project where the USA fractured into multiple warring states in a multisided modern civil war.
Since I can’t help but inject some kind of weird horror elements I added “The Ohio Exclusion Zone”, an area roughly bordering Ohio that has been completely walled off. The wall is patrolled and watched. Whatever is beyond it is so serious that the warring states all agree the wall is off limits of the war.
I don’t know what is beyond it though. My first thought was skinwalkers. Shapeshifting weird spirits seems pretty ominous. Maybe instead f them, just a giant black orb hovering in Ohio and doing, something…
I don’t know. What weird paranormal thing would make the military patrol a border and is such a threat that enemies of that military agree the border is off limits in war.
(Yes I’m asking people to be creative for me…)
Do you need to know?
It could be interesting to have it just be a canonical "black hole, ie nobody knows what’s there - it started with people, animals and plants disappearing and then jumped to hills, buildings and even weather systems until there was nothing there at all as far as the outside world is aware; nobody who goes there ever comes back, satellite photos come back corrupted, and people are scared to even mention it
I would suggest even further restraint. There’s no need to fill the space, just have it as a mystery, maybe even to yourself.
Blank spaces on the map are always so intriguing.
I want to know, even if the presentation leaves it very obfuscated. Being able to drop vague, borderline nonsense clues works better if the creator actually knows what they mean. Otherwise I’m just writing LOST.
I don’t think that necessarily puts you in Mystery Box territory. JJ would just change it to fit whatever he wants to say at the moment. Think of it more as a currently-unknown variable that will logically reveal itself to you as you continue building the setting outside.
“We just don’t know about what happened in Ohio, but it had to be cordoned off.”
PS You should check out East of West by Image Comics.