The Nanoplague

The city state of Avari, in times past, used to be a proper and notable nation. As the course of history ran, however, it steadily lost its territory to it’s more active and competent neighbours, until it was narrowed down to its very capital. Today, it is a dangerous wasteland where death, barely visible to the naked eye, haunts the air in the form of countless tiny constructs. Though, it's more corporeal inhabitants are no less dangerous.

## History

Avari is built in a ring formation around a single Battery, a fact which has haunted the imagination of many after the famous incidents with Arkrad and, much later, with Al’Dina. The stable powersource and defensible positions made a full on assault against the city a problematic thing, especially when they had bluffed to secretly hold the knowledge on how to detonate the thing, in desperation. This allowed Avari the opportunity to strike a deal. Boxed in between several powerful nations, it would serve as a neutral trading hub for their merchants, offering them an objective and favorable legislation to the benefit of both countries, as well as reforming its political structure to that of a Constitutional Monarchy, where a prime minister would be elected among the local citizens. This, of course, allowed its neighbouring countries to heavily influence the results of these elections, battling to install their own representative in the city’s shadows.

For its survival, this would most certainly not have been enough, and so, the city-state went to great pains in order to establish positive relations with various representatives of elite classes within the surrounding nations, lobbying in favor of its continued existence on the map.

As time went by and as the city-state gained in wealth, it began to invest in various projects of magical and technological nature, hoping to gain a more reliable tool with which to bargain with on the political landscape. It was one of these projects that spelled its doom on that fateful day.

Avari had to answer a very particular question: “How does a small, single city country like ours present a significant enough threat to our massive neighbors to command respect and have a leverage upon which to lean?”. One of their answers was Nanomachines.

To this day, no one knows from where Avari managed to find specialists qualified enough to work on such a complicated technology. Some point fingers to Rozeen, claiming that they sold unchecked precursor technology retrieved from the Ironbolt to the city-state. Others claim that it was the Federation that was funding the whole thing as a military platform to use against its neighbors. Still, some point fingers at the Heira corporation for developing this terrible weapon on the back of repeated rumours of unethical conduct. There are many theories as to the source, but alas, none can be confirmed without venturing into the modern day Avari City-State, or what’s left of it.

### The Nanoplague

The Nanomachine project went out of control. In order to consistently power this swarm, a continual supply of energy from the city Battery was required. Whole logistical networks of energy-carrier nanoconstructs would need to be set up in order for a potential war effort to be successful, yet as the test-drive launch of the swarm began, something immediately went wrong. An outburst of power from the Battery occurred as a result of some unprecedented error upon contact with the swarm. The bots programming seemed to have been completely rewired, causing the swarm to go on a veritable rampage.

A swarm of nanoconstructs barely visible to the eye that consumes all around them, programmed to target the enemy and self-replicate, continuing the cycle until they would all be annihilated. The city fell in a matter of days.

The Nanoplague, as it is known today, began to spread outward at an increasing pace, forcing the city states’ neighbours to create a coalition of constant EMP and anti-tech fields all around the nation’s border, slowing the plague’s advance. This was considered to be the end of the matter, as the nations had no ready made solution to the problem, besides boxing it in.

### The Nanoplague, Mk. 2

Years later, another outbreak occured as the fields were penetrated. While the swarm itself still could not pass due to its mechanical nature, it seemed the Nanoplague adapted to its conditions. The borders were breached by the sudden appearance of an army of what seemed to be heavily modified humanoid bodies moving in ways not befitting of a person. They were reported to be capable of taking an unnatural amount of punishment, with even a shot to the head often not immediately killing them, and bleeding a silvery goo-like substance instead of the normally expected red blood. Soldiers who have fought them in close combat were reported to become infected, with those that were not treated in time joining the ranks of these silver-blooded humanoids. This outbreak too was quelled, but now in addition to a specialised field array, countries are forced to keep a constant vigil along the border of the former city state, each one constructing their own imperfect method of defense. This was monickered as the Nanoplague Mk 2. The Nanoplague as of today has been successfully contained, but none of the nations forced to deal with the issue are under any illusion that this is a permanent solution to the problem.

### The Advent of the Cults

Although the horrors of the Nanoplague and the exclusion zone are their own topic to lose sleep over, the problem did not end there. Some discontent and desperate individuals began to view the Nanoplague as a form of new world order come to save mortals from their many sins. There have been attempts at crossing the border of the Exclusion Zone by various civilians, and sometimes even whole groups. Military stationed at its border successfully stopped each such attempt, turning the civilians back on their path, until things escalated further and the first armed border breach attempt was made. The group striking the exclusion line was organised, determined and suicidally zealous. Caught off-guard by their own citizens committing what is effectively a terrorist act, the border was breached and the attackers made their way past the exclusion zone, never to be heard of again.

Since this incident, rumours of mysterious cult activity began to pop all over the world, their members preaching strange and alien things that appeal to those individuals of society who have trouble finding a place where they belong, and an identity to call their own, promising them a new and better world as part of the Nanoplague hivemind. These cults range from harmless concentrations of rebellious youths, to full on dangerous psychopaths. Needless to say, the Exclusion Zone border now operates on a kill-on-sight policy from any individual not possessing a proper permit that approaches closer than 800 feet.