Boiled Alive

***Boiled Alive*** is a post-apocalyptic action-adventure drama franchise created by EDStudios. The franchise emcompasses an alternate reality where the world has been devastated by a global nuclear war, fracturing nations and forcing the survivors to face new threats, which includes other survivors and creatures born from the radioactive fallout. The franchise' title derives from the in-universe term that is used to refer to those with advanced radiation sickness, resulting in their skin melting away.

The frachise currently consists of four planned instalments, all set at varying points in the franchise timeline. The first is titled *Below*, and is set in a subterranean megacity known as Halcyon that is divided into districts, with the richest surviving at the bottom and the poorest nearer the surface, where the radiation is most severe.

The second is titled *The Fall*, and follows a group of survivors as they seek refuge on the partially rebuilt west coast of the United States approximately thirty years following the apocalypse.

The third is *Savage Sam*, which follows the eponymous lone survivor on a series of adventures that test his sanity in a world already gone made. The fourth is a currently untitled series set in Russia. Other instalments are planned.

## Storyline & Overview

The background story of *Boiled Alive* involves a "what-if" scenario in which the world has become divided between two adversarial governments: the United Nations, led primarily by the United States, and the Warsaw Treaty Organization, led primarily by the Soviet Union and China. Humanity's technological advancement occured much earlier than in the real world, with electricity being devised in the late 18th Century and nuclear weapons being utilized in the First World War. By the 21st Century, the world became desolate as its natural resources were depleted, leading to a series of conflicts known as the Resource Wars. This war could be divided into various other conflicts, the most notable of which were the Oil Wars, the Gas Wars and the devastating Water Wars. The Resource Wars culminated in the UN-WTO War, which ended in 2055 with a global nuclear exchange referred to as the Great Collapse, resulting in the post-apocalyptic world in which the franchise takes place.

As the nukes ravaged the surface, a small portion of the American population fled into massive underground cities that had been built by the government in case of such a conflict; these cities could support hundreds of thousands over the course of several decades, and extended miles into the Earth's crust. One such city was Halcyon, a ten-mile-long metropolis that saw many conflicts between its divided classes.

The world above was vastly changed by the Great Collapse, with the survivors working to slowly rebuild their nations and restore order. The United States federal government reformed over the course of a decade and forcibly brough the states back under their control, only failing on a few ocassions; the territories that remained free from the United States include the Republic of Northern California, the Montana Republic, and the Commonwealth of Atlantica. The regions between these independent territories, while technically controlled by the reformed United States, became known as the Wasteland, a radioactive no-man's-land dotted with isolated settlements and roving bands of survivors, many of which had turned to raiding to survive. Some of these raider clans were powerful enough to drive out federal soldiers and citizens and take the land for their own. Other survivors simply grouped together into tribes, each with their own unique traditions; for examples, the V8s (colloquially known as the "Vates") centred their society on V8 engines and built their own customized vehicles as a coming-of-age ritual.

Most of the events of the series take place in the United States. The first installment, *Below*, takes place in the underground city of Halcyon at an undisclosed location in the United States. The second installment, *The Fall*, is set on the remains of the West Coast, specificially a geographic region of the RNC called the Frisco Wasteland. The third installment, *Savage Sam*, takes place in the central United States, which has been reduced to a hostile desert by the nuclear detonations.

## Factions

> *Main Article: Factions*
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## Installments

### Below

> *Main Article: Below*
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Set in the underground city of Halcyon, *Below* follows the conflict between the Uppers - the city's poorer residents who are forced to reside at the top of Halcyon, where the radiation is highest - and the Lowers, the richer residents who reside at the bottom, where the radiation is lowest. It centres on a diverse range of characters who become involved in a sharp rise in tensions between the two factions, which could lead to a conflict that could finally throw the city into chaos. The series begins in 2108, fifty-three years after the Great Collapse.

### The Fall

> *Main Article: The Fall*
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Set on the radiation-ravaged surface, *The Fall* will follow an unnamed survivor who awakens in the post-apocalypse with no knowledge of their past as they discover how much the world has degenerated. The series' title refers to the Great Collapse itself, but also to the radioactive fallout that is still a prominent threat to humanity's survival.