Comet's Universes

## Universe 1 - Zombies

**TW FOR TMI MEDICAL SYMPTOMS AND THE GOVERNMENT BEING ASSHOLES**

## Background

The year is currently 2023. In late May a mysterious new illness began to spread, originating from the East coast of the US. The symptoms were splitting headaches, dizziness, constriction of blood vessels and oddly vibrant bruising over the back and shoulders to name a few. Cases popped up in several states, an increasing number each day, and the CDC announced it as an epidemic, if not a serious one. Which, in our 20/20 hindsight, was a mistake, because they had yet to discover the last and most dangerous symptom—an infection of the meninges (brain fluid) which caused victims to develop extreme aggression. The military science division theorised later that as it was a virus that could only be transferred through exchange of bodily fluids, was not airborne and couldn't survive below temperatures close to a human's core body temperature, it resorted to destroying its host's mental capacity in order to spread. Which is all well and good when you're locked in a lab surrounded by hordes of mindless zombies. Good job guys.

The virus took a few days to induce these mental effects, so in theory, it should have been easy to isolate those infected so they were not unleashed on the general public. But people are selfish idiots. Within less than a week the zombies began to spread across the country, and in a desperate attempt to gain control of the situation, the government declared martial law and the military started to take control of pockets of the country where survivors remained. The problem with dire situations is that while it can bring out the best in people, it can also show their worst sides, particularly if they have a lot of power and need to get rid of the zombie problem quickly in order to maintain their place on the world stage. Another problem was that the military was not as big as it needed to be to address a problem affecting the whole country—so they began to draft in any survivors they could giving them the absolute minimum of basic training which sounds like a good deal when you're being chased by the zombified versions of your friends and family, but less good when you're shot in the face because you don't know how to use an assault rifle.

People with scientific knowledge became a precious commodity to the military too. They were allowed to research the virus using any means necessary, which again, can bring out the best or the worst in people. In this case, mostly the worst. It was during these less-than-humane experiments that a phenomenon which could be the beacon of hope the government was looking for was observed—immunity. Individuals who succumbed to the virus, but after the first few days of illness, didn't descend into aggressive instability, but retained their mental faculties and seemed to improve, left only with the violet bruises to show they'd ever been infected at all. The cases of immunity were observed most prevalently where the virus began, on the East Coast, so naturally the army jumped on this area, with foreign militaries offering their own assistance up and down the coast.

(Not many of them have figured this out yet, but the virus has mutated again since the outbreak, drastically reducing the chance of someone being immune to almost zero. This makes the already existing ones even more valuable, and everyone is absolutely intent on catching them.)

### Differences

#### Magic and Supernatural

It's...there. But it's often not so noticeable to people. The important distinctions are the existence of ghosts, who are invisible to almost everyone but can sometimes affect their surrounding envirionment, and witches. The only relevant ones are in Maine and fled to quarantine zones from their remote homes to stay safe during the outbreak. None of them have any intention of being evacuated from the country, staying behind a wall is nothing more than a mild precaution for them.

## Background

Scotland is a lovely country with beautiful scenery and rich culture, but in this universe it's also home to some of the most turbulent supernatural conflicts of the modern world, all happening right under the nose of its human population. It would take way too long to list every war that's taken place there, but when it comes to the five most common supernatural races in the countries (banshees, merrows, shifters, dryads and witches) all of them have fought each other at some point in history. We pretend that's over with now, though in truth the dryads and merrows are still locked in a conflict that claims lives every time a merrow swims too close to the shore.

Let's cover each of the communities in turn then, starting with the banshees, because they're easiest. In folklore they're known as old women who comb their hair and wail for the forgotten dead. This is...almost correct. The things that set banshees apart from humans are their vibrant green eyes and ability to create unholy noises that can permanently destroy someone's hearing. They're native to Scotland, in fact they are almost exclusively found there, though there are probably some suspicious green-eyed persons in other countries hiding their heritage. They've certainly been the quietest of the five recently, which counterproductively has created an atmosphere of mistrust around them. Everyone's waiting to see what scheme they've cooked up this time.

Next, the dryads. They're currently the most powerful of the lot. They have brown skin and green hair, which turns reddish-orange in their old age (like trees? let it never be said I can't do symbolism) but with the hair dyed, no one would be able to tell they weren't human. With several of their people high up in politics and important corporations, and more links to a global community than the others, they have a lot of control and they enjoy abusing it. Especially against the merrows. At every opportunity they push iniatives to "clean up the ocean" with the ulterior motive of punishing underwater communities. They also have watchdogs—these tend to be younger dryads, sent out to patrol towns and villages for anyone trying to oppose their higher-ups, with a handsome reward if they can make anyone pay. In a lowkey dumb move though, those watchdogs tend to be notoriously easy to spot, since most dress like they're in a budget stage production of Robin Hood.

The merrows enjoy a seasoned sense of oppression from the dryads. Most of the communities are foreign in origin, since the best part of the native Scottish merrows were killed off long ago. They live in the scarce areas of undisturbed ocean, venturing to the surface only when necessary. They tend to be paler than humans and have a bluish tint to their eyes, as well as skin that gets dry *very* easily. If they want to live on the surface for any extended period of time they better be prepared to pay an astronomical water bill. Despite the challenges, some of them make it work, but for the most part they are stuck under the dryads' heel and unhappy about it.

Shapeshifters can do what it says on the tin—they change their shape. The variation that inhabits the UK can only make themselves look like other humans or occasionally with practice, other humanoid supernatural creatures. No one knows if they're native to Scotland or not, all they know is that their village Fainttefach (where 95% of them live) has been there for all our historical memory. Due to their relative isolation and ability to hide themselves they are held at arm's length by everyone else and deeply mistrusted. Their sole weakness to an outsider is their heightened sense, which is probably what caused them to despise banshees so much. For no obvious reason, their input has quite a sway with the dryads. Honestly so little is known about them that your best bet for information is going straight to the village, but with the fair warning that most of their trespassers are never seen again. Apart from when they turn up dead.

Witches are less mysterious, but no less dangerous. It's not just the act of practicing magic, to be a witch is to be a different species that experiences the world in a different way to humans and indeed everyone else. Every one has a different kind of magic, making them upredictable, and to make it worse, they are a tight-knit family. To mess with one witch is bring down the wrath of all of them. They are governed by the High Witch Catriona MacRaild, one of the most feared individuals in the country. Even though the dryads are definitely the most powerful species with influence over humans, the witches have an iron grip on the Western Isles and no one would dare question them.

The thing that makes Scotland a point of interest globally is also the thing that's supposed to be its most closely guarded secret. If you are in the right place to hear some powerful people whispering, you might come across the knowledge that Scotland is home to an object that can manipulate reality, and object that is so powerful the user cannot control its whims. So of course, everyone wants it. But it's hard to find something when it could be literally any object in a country of eighty thousand square kilometres.

Of course, if you were really in the right place at the right time, you might hear a whisper that the object has been stolen, perhaps even *used*...but that's a theory at best and a wild speculation at worst.

*Probably more coming soon I have zero self-control ;)*