The Old World

> "I long think about these stone towers that rise into the sky. How grand this city must have looked when they made this place their home. I wonder if they feel a great pain now that they live underground, to never again look down from their gray towers."
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## Home

A long time ago could humans say that this place was their home. Earth, the place were humanity claimed descent but now it is nothing more than a shadow. Their concrete spires rise up into the heavens blocking the suns warmth. Cold snow falls to the ground blanketing the bones and corpses of those who tried once more to retake their home. Deep into these spires do beasts scream and hiss. Perfectly content in their newfound hive that they have stolen from humanity. This is their home now and not even the strongest of men can fight these wretched beasts.

So what of the humans that long ago claimed this place. They no longer live in the towers that reach the stars but deep below. Under miles and miles of stone and steel do they make their new home, ready to reach out onto the surface. There is no luxury, no resemblance of ancient life, just a highly regulated efficient machine. Most are born from steel wombs into the world that does not see them as people but as cogs in the company's machine. Each one slowly turning the wheel that will set humanity free from their own monsters that they regret with every passing second. The workers clean pipes and fix decaying machinery, the engineers create arms and weapons and the thousand of other jobs work tirelessly. Life drudges on with even the basic necessities of life being drip fed to them. Family is as foreign to them as the writhing beasts above, Love is as strange as the growing pieces of gore on ancient buildings. Even food has been stripped down to the bare minimum, a perfectly made nutrient bar of neutral flavor that they will eat forever.

The surface offers freedom and choice but with it is the fear and paranoia that takes over ones own body. Every shadow is one of them, every little hiss in the night, every vague silhouette seen from windows afar. Some have it easy as they are slaughtered like cattle. Their bodies melded into the flesh of the hives. What irony that their enemy is made up of the remains of themselves. Others walk for years on the surface abandoned by humanity and by a cruel chance of fate ignored by those that lurk within these towers. Each day above ground they are reminded of how far they have fallen. The bright neon lights of desolate buildings flickers on for a moment, the robot slaves say a hearty hello, a restaurant is still producing food. Petty reminders of how they have been stripped of all that makes them human. As they anguish in self pity there is a laugh across the way. A pale reflection of them stares back with a mouth of fangs and a hand of claws. They stare at eachother with wide dilated pupils. They see themselves in a rotten disfigured form who must be burned away to claim their home. This world is no longer made for humans in any capacity. Instead this world is for their children who will fight with tooth and nail to make it theirs.

## The Bunkers

When humanity had returned from The Dark City they found Earth to be a cesspool of infection that they left behind. There was however six bunkers that had been made during the resource wars that were serviceable. This set up the system by which humans would survive for the thousands of years to come. They were heavily armored and the old air filters cleaned the infected air from the surface. In practicality there was absolutely no need to go to surface as waiting out the infection was quite possible.

However as the bunkers began to start being destroyed from within they realized they could no longer wait. Two bunkers rebelled entirely and cut all communication with XER Tech. One was torn to pieces by a new threat that had forced the companies hand to start expeditions to the surface.

XER Tech Bunkers

* Camelot
* Valhalla
* Sengoku
* Nile

Rebellious Bunkers

* Rebellion
* Verrater

Destroyed Bunkers

* Argo

## Relics of The Past

In The Dark City there was technological marvels that bent time and space to there will. Now humans rely on cheap plastic and unreliable steel to save them. In the darkest pits of the old world do relics exist. The giant mechs that served as the companies main line of defense. Power armor with artifical A.I to assist the user in all tasks. Handheld pistols thats firepower rival that of ancient tanks. All lost when humanity had to find their way to The Bunkers. If the company could recover just a handful of these relics then their plight would vanish in an instant.

## The Infection

When the infection first spread over the Earth was there nothing but a bloody bone covered hell. No one knew where the infection was coming from. It filled the air and by the time you felt its sting you had no chance. The souls who were left behind when the rest of humanity turned to The Dark City saw the worst of it all. Their bones cracked and contorted, flesh ripped and scarred and fingers turned to wicked blades. The true creature that The Black Queen wanted, Wretches.

In thousand years prior they made their home in any place possible. Engorging their stomachs on all the meat they could. But as The Black Queen's power began to fade so did the infection. No longer could these Wretches live in abundance of food and space. They had to go deeper into the subways and skyscrapers. Slowly are they fading away as just a bad memory to humanity. But the careless humans who wander into their hives will find a thousand hungry maws greeting them.

## The Empire

    When the Empress and her traitor lover marched into the bunker Argo, out came The Empire. While humanity is on its last limb of survival and the wretches starve themselves does the Empire rise. The hybrid AEON's made from a witch and a human make for people best suited to surviving in this world. They expanded and grew without anything to stop them. In one hand was a sword made of bone and flesh. The other held a salvaged rifle from their human ancestor. By the time XER TECH found out about their growth was there already millions of them.

A society built upon a strict matriarchy and religious system. One that encourages only two actions in life, love and violence. Women play politics in their own families as they learn skills and tasks such as engineering,smithing and other trade crafts. The men go out into the world and conquer the Wretch hives that still remain. The greatest honor however is to return home with not treasure and petty trinkets but a human skull.

In recent years they have felt a social revolution breaking out across their empire. Some believe that they should aspire to be more like their human ancestors. Some reject their human heritage as they turn themselves into the wretches that once ruled the world. A handful of new radical social ideas merge every year as they grow with military strength. The noble daughters of the Empress fight fang and claw to keep the status quo. In all this turmoil and chaos has the northern empire's leader, the Empresses sister, declared independence. The Empire is now a place of civil war, political struggle and changing social norms in a world that they barely understand the history of.