The Nuntius

Far back during the earliest ages of humanity, when the Gods had not yet begun to interfere with humanity and were much more unknown, The Nuntius had begun as a religion. They worshipped what they believed to be the Gods, and at first it began very tame, it was a very standard religion, but over time it became more and more radical. The religion had become widespread across the world, it was huge, and that's when it began to develop in sinister ways, it became cult-like. They wore what was essentially gas masks as to "not breathe the same air as lesser beings", and modified and contorted their bodies in such ways as to separate themselves from regular humans, they turned their skin to near pale shades of blue, or at times a completely pale white, and did the same with their hair, they marked and tattooed their bodies with blood from the very moment of birth, and undertook unbelievably grueling routines to shape their body into "divine idealness", giving them near superhuman capabilities. It turned from condemning those who don't believe in their ways, to forcing people to either convert or die. They began crusades across the world, trying to convert as many as possible, and killing all those that they suspected of not being loyal to their ways or not truly believing. People that didn't believe would be tortured until they either believed or were sacrificed for not conforming, villages that didn't convert would be burned to the ground, it was a massacre. Finally, the New Gods stepped in, and began the largest battle of the Nuntius yet. They lured the forces in with one of the Gods disguised as a "Messiah" with incredible power, one so against their religion and such a large threat is needed to absolutely be taken care of. Once they arrived, all at once they were banished underground, under the very crust of the Earth itself, and soon overtime they rounded up the rest of all they could find and either banished them too or killed them.

They expected them to die out quickly underground, a cruel fate as punishment, but they survived. They were resilient, and over generations built a civilization underground with extremely rare resources found there at such as deep level. Though the Nuntius were extremely close to dying out, being trapped underground, there was nowhere for any smoke or smog to go that was produced from their towns, all of it was trapped underground, it progressively got worse and worse until you could barely see even a mile into the distance, all that kept them alive was the gas masks they wore as part of their religion.

After more generations, they evolved even further, the evolved extremely slash and puncture resistant skin that was unbelievably smooth and slippery, some have evolved so far that they have a thin layer of mucus coating them, which allowed for easier navigation through the underground systems. Underneath that was a second layer of skin, extremely thick and almost rubbery, it helped protect from blunt damage like falling rock and debris, but its main purpose was to help insulate them, protecting them from the harsh underground temperatures. Finally, they had extremely tough hard bones that were evolved for falling rock and debris, making them not so easily breakable, as a result of this much more dense and powerful bone structure, their muscle mass also increased greatly. After all this evolution, the Nuntius have become one of the most, if not the most fortuitous race and are extremely physically capable. Though in terms of technology and intellectual development, being trapped underground for generations has left them far behind everyone else.

Finally, after centuries had passed, the Great War had happened, and the rupture in reality created such a devastating tear in the Earth that it created enough of an opening for smoke to begin to escape from the underground. Decades later, Archeologists discovered this strange dispersal of man-made smoke and smog coming out from the ground and began to investigate, they started mining and excavating the area, before finally they discovered the Nuntius. The initial awe and thrill of finding this ancient underground civilization soon turned to horror, when the Nuntius began asking them about their beliefs, and upon discovering they weren't of their kind, they started killing and torturing the researchers. Upon discovering all that happened, and learning more of these "New Gods", they began their new crusade, the crusade to kill these Fake Gods and reclaim the glory of theirs.