The Dark Blooded

"*To survive a mad world...**become** the madness,*"
—The series' subtitle**[src]**

***The Dark Blooded***, also known as ***The Walking Dead by EDStudios 2 (TWDbEDS 2)*** or ***TDB***, was a British post-apocalyptic horror series set in the same universe as *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*, taking place in the same continuity but ignoring the narrative of the Original Series. Unlike the original franchise, it was set on the Eurasian continent in the fictional Eastern European country of Sovia, and followed a group of American college students who become trapped in Sovia following the global zombie outbreak and find themselves involved in the collapse of Sovia's society. This franchise also features a different strain of the zombie pathogen, leading to several differences with the established walkers from the original franchise.

The series was cancelled in 2021 in favour of *Strain Zero*.

## Plot

*In the oppressed Eastern European country of Sovia, a group of American tourists become trapped in the country upon the onset of the global zombie outbreak. As the government and society collapse around them, they realize they are dealing with a very different strain of the infection: their lives are saved, but they must face a threat unlike anything seen across the rest of the world.*

## Conception and Development

### Conception

EDStudios began planning a new stage of *The Walking Dead by EDStudios* universe during the development of *The Fatal Frontier*, the final instalment of the Original Series. With almost all of the franchise's instalments being set in the United States, it was decided to create a new story in a different country on an entirely different continent. Additionally, it was decided that the series would take a similar format to *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*, beginning with the outbreak in 2012.

A new setting was chosen in Eastern Europe, and an entirely new country was created: Sovia. To develop this fictional country, research on Eastern European history, geography and language was carried out by the writing team, with the Sovian language being a mixture of Russian and Belarusian, with a few modifications. A custom flag was made and inspired by the flags of modern former Soviet countries such as Latvia, Belarus and the nations of the Caucasus region.

In the Original Series, the zombie infection had killed all those over the age of eighteen almost instantaneously across the entire world; because EDStudios wanted *The Dark Blooded* to feature adult survivors as a change from the Original Series, they added the idea that the zombie pathogen would be mutated, producing a strain that would be unique to Sovia and have an impact on the story.

*The Dark Blooded* is the first instalment in the series' universe to be co-written with admin EthanWalker2000, who edited most episodes of *The Fatal Frontier*.

### Development

The story and characters of *The Dark Blooded* began development in July 2020, at the same time that the first episode of *The Fatal Frontier* was released.

## Seasons and Episodes

### Season 1

*As strangers in a foreign land, a group of American tourists find themselves trapped in the Republic of Sovia. Faced with the total collapse of society, the Americans face new creatures and government forces as they seek a way out of their prison, an experience that will leave them forever changed. Faced with a different world, they will all have to answer the question...who are you?*

## Trivia

* *The Dark Blooded* is similar to its sister series, *The Walking Dead by EDStudios*, in several ways.
	+ It follows a group of students visiting a foreign country, and are trapped in the country following the apocalypse, similar to the Clarkson Survivors.
	+ At least one of the main characters has a family connection to the country they visit *(Everett Carter and Sarah Terringham)*.
	+ The state or country that the series begins in is fictional and invented for the series continuity *(Sylvania in the Original Series, Sovia in The Dark Blooded)*.
* *The Dark Blooded* introduces the Sovia Strain, a strain of the zombie pathogen that has been mutated and resulted in unique zombies not seen outside Sovia.
	+ Although not much is yet known about the specifics of this version of the pathogen, it has been confirmed that it will ignore the immediate deaths of all those over the age of eighteen, which the original virus initially caused in all other instalments.
	+ This means that the characters in *The Dark Blooded* will be the first main characters to start a series as legal adults, and possibly the only adults to survive the initial outbreak.
* The series introduces the fictional Eastern-European country of Sovia. Only a few details about the country are available.
	+ It is a fictionalized version of the real-life Bryansk Oblast in western Russia; in the series' continuity, the Oblast became its own state and covers most of the area of the real-life Oblast.
	+ It was a Soviet Republic as part of the Soviet Union, and gained independence in the early 1990s.
	+ It has very close ties to Russia, with many foreigners nicknaming it "Little Russia".
	+ Historically it was part of Kievan Rus', a union of Eastern-European peoples from the late 9th to the mid-13th century; Sovia's capital is still named Kievan. The ancient inhabitants of Sovia built exotic weapons for warfare, such as a sword with two blades, contributing to the Sovian people's proud warrior heritage.

## Behind the Scenes

* This is the first instalment in the series' universe to be co-written with admin EthanWalker2000.