World Backstory (Updated 1/7/19)

[Emptybag 12]

[Current Day], 2021.  Four years after initial outbreak, back in 2016.  Many have fought countless battles to make it this far.  Most who haven't, wouldn't have made it this far.  But you did.  Whether it be by might or by intellect, you stood out from the crowd, and pushed through surviving.  We all have.

There are two main groups in this Minnesota Military compound.  Holed up in an old Abandoned Nike Missile bunker-turned-Tourist-Trap, is the 2016 "Chicago" survivors, who have been here the longest since mid 2019, and the 2017 "Dallas City" survivors, who came around June/July 2020.  The former consists nearly entirely of people that have known each other since the initial outbreak in Chicago and have banded together for all four consecutive years with one another, easily demonstrating the well oiled machine that has become their structure and unity.  It is evident through their administration duties and how they compose themselves that they have suffered through  thick and thin, gained ingenuity out of necessity, and forged a system that has kept them going.  The ladder group is composed of a hodge-podge of people from around the Southern/Mideastern United States, demonstrating their familial nature in how they respect one another and the bonds they gained through their time in what is now viral wastelands; it is no secret they have suffered just as much as any other group has, and become stronger through it.  While the Dallas survivors lack the rather rigid structure and rules of safety & procedure of the Chicago survivors, it becomes exceedingly clear without prolonged exposure that these two ways of living gel and morph one another, becoming a cohesive community.  Opposites tend to attract, and while they aren't necessarily on polar ends of the spectrum, the fact they have found each other and cooperate shows that there is a reason all of these people still live.

For those on the outside of this humble community, the winter, particularly in this region, has been fraught with plenty of turbulence.  Not only that, but besides the weather there is the actual outbreak to worry about, and the banditry to boot.  In these four years, you might not have seen everything, but you would be hard pressed to have had it easy.  At first, there were simply hundreds of thousands of walkers....then runners.  Within six months, there began to show signs of mutation; anybody moderately versed in the nature of such things could tell that the normal undead became more receptive of humans and would react accordingly.  And that doesn't even take into account the actual monstrosities, the bastards of nature that the virus brought with it.  A year in, there were screamers that easily popped eardrums, caused poor vision, and caused sensory overload, essentially stunning those unfortunate enough to hear their call -- and those screamers only brought more attention.  Large ones that exploded or vomited to attract any nearby, ones who spat acid, some who constricted, and other who jumped and rended; roided out muscleheads that sought nothing other that to destroy -- all sorts came out of the woodwork.  Once two years rolled around, this saw the rise of even more anomalies, and while the last set of mutations weren't exactly common but could be dealt with, these ones were even rarer and proved to be much more formidable foes.  Fire-immune runners.  EMP Techs, who utilize a latent energy field nearby to disrupt ALL devices in an area.  Dark Lurkers that, as their name implies, hide where none can see yet manage to squeeze through crevices with ease and pack rush toward eviscerating their prey.  Simple runners who, despite numerous sustained injuries, simply never seem to truly die, only retreat.  Malformed infected, that use their superior constitution and odd limbs to thwart attacks.  Giant balls of flesh that engorged themselves on prey and swallowed whole.

Strictly speaking, none of this was easy to deal with, particularly after two years in.  Ammunition became a commodity that spelled life or death more than ever before, canned food was raided from most obvious areas, and this isn't even mentioning the nature of mankind, ever greedy and willing to resort to violence all too easily.  Murderers, rapists, experimenters, crazed doctors, straight up lunatics and madmen, all roamed the streets.  For some, the ambient environment was enough to cause them to go mad, simply jumped off a building into a hoarde.  For others, they believed they truly were immune, only to figure out the hard way that they in fact, were not.  Some lived after getting bit by chopping off a limb fast enough, but only to endure their friends and family fall around them.  Others turned cold to deal with the trauma, cutting off all access to emotion.  Even trained soldiers proved to be no match for some of these infected, the squad protecting the very bunker the community is based in having been overrun upon their arrival.  At this point, it's survival of the fittest, every man for themselves, trust nobody, and the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

These methods and practices were proved time and time again, over the four years.  But you lived through your own battles.  Whether it was medical complications, the infected, the environment, or the people you met -- you survived it all, to this point.  It was once said to sup with the might, one must walk the path of daggers...and it would appear you have arrived to what many would call a respite from the madness.

This by no means proves 100% safety, however.  There is still no word whatsoever about a cure, nobody in any sect of any military knows anything, and many years ago any broadcasts were completely cut off.  You don't have to like or trust everyone here, and surely there are those that already live here that do not; but this just might be your best bet to make it another year.

[Emptybag 12]

Please note this backstory may or may not be 100% accurate as of the date of this comment and our soft start (8/27/19); the admin team is still working on how we want to explain or handle the absences of players for such a long time.

[Spring 1]

So what's happening?