Post by Kathryn Storm on Feb 24, 2020 17:51:25 GMT
Benedict Addison is one of the most powerful dark wizards that ever lived. His reign of terror cut a path of destruction across the world. One by one, countries fell to the power of his influence, the UK first, then America, then the rest. There were many fierce wars between his followers, and those that would seek to resist them, but in the end, Benedict became powerful enough to get what he wanted.
He returned to the UK in 2018, and tore a hole in the veil between this world and another place, a shadow realm known as the Otherworld. Benedict's plan was to control the creatures that emerged, protect his loyal subjects while becoming architect of a new age on earth, but instead he disappeared. Otherworld demons began to pour through unchecked, and with no sign of Benedict to stem the flow, they ran rampant on the earth. There was an apocalypse.
Human and magical societies collapsed. Billions of humans, vampires, werewolves and half-breeds died, most of their global populations eradicated by the hellish creatures that seemed equally impervious to magic and bullets. The epicentre of the tear, known as 'The Rip', became an exclusion zone five miles in perimeter, inaccessible to anyone who didn't wish to die a painful death.
Ten years after the Rip, humans are still clinging to life by their fingernails, in guarded settlements. They are on the brink of extinction. Vampires protect them, afraid of starvation if humans are eradicated, but it is not a benevolent act. Humans are farmed, bred, trafficked and traded. Some humans hand themselves to the vampires, exhausted and prepared to submit themselves to a lifetime of blood donation in return for being fed and protected. Other humans cling to independence in scattered settlements in the Wildlands, struggling to survive in a world full of monsters. Women and children are at risk of being snatched by traffickers for breeding. Some vampires raise humans as pets, keeping them on leashes for their blood producing ability. Killing humans is outlawed by vampire society, but there are those who will pay handsomely for the thrill of a true kill.
Some are trying to create a synthetic substitute for human blood, to set humans free from vampire control. Others are trying to stop them, as blood is the new currency and its rarity is the source of its value. Others are afraid that without their blood to make them valuable, humans will no longer incur protection from the vampire populations and more will die. The power struggle is bitter, and desperate. No matter how many monsters are killed, more keep coming through the Rip, and nobody knows how to close it but Benedict, and nobody has seen him in a decade.
It's 2028. Will the world see 2030? Nobody truly knows.
Rough Timeline of Events
At the moment of the Rip
Benedict tears a rip through the veil into the Otherworld. There is an immediate blast of energy from the Rip that sweeps across the entire bottom half of England. The blast itself does not kill the people it touches, but it scatters Otherworld beings like spores.
30 minutes
The creatures scattered by the blast are Shadowform- they are invisible aside from a tell-tale shimmer, and can move incredibly fast. (See creature files) There is no time for defence. The south of England falls to chaos in seconds. Hundreds of thousands of people die.
One Hour
Most of Southern England has fallen to the Shadowform. They kill everything they meet. The infestation moves upward, sweeping through England toward the north. The first emergency TV broadcasts go out, but too late for those already in the creatures path. Reports are coming in of different (visible) creatures appearing at the epicentre of the blast, with wildly varying descriptions. These ones are slower than the Shadowform but no less deadly.
Six Hours
Military response is scrambled, but completely unprepared for the speed of the creatures. The Shadowform have crossed the Scottish border and covered the entire of the UK mainland landmass. France, Belgium and the Nethrerlands try to coordinate a military response at their coastlines. Ireland stops all boat and ferry crossings from the mainland. It is useless. The Shadowform appear to be able to cross water, and soon carnage begins on the coasts, swiftly overwhelming military defences.
Twelve Hours
The slower landform creatures are spreading up the country, killing off many of the survivors of the Shadowform siege. 95% of the UK population is dead. Some of the flying landform creatures bring down helicopters attempting to evacuate survivors. More and more creatures pour through the Rip. The Shadowform have overtaken most of Ireland, and half of France.
Twenty Four Hours
Europe makes an emergency military response, trying to hold back the Shadowform at the French and German inland borders. Spain tries to protect its border too, but efforts fail. Emergency evacuations take place along the Spanish border, people fleeing inland. It won't help. Russia refuses to accept evacuees from Easter Europe. There are the first reports of deaths in Sweden.
Thirty Six Hours
Spain falls. The infestation spreads into Portugal, Morocco, and in the other direction into Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. Russia mobilises troops to the Ukrainian border and there is sabre rattling as Russia accuses the US of being the root cause of the attack.
Forty Eight Hours
The first Shadowform arrive on the US coast, having crossed the sea. The first landform creatures make it to Scotland. Too late, it's realised that more and more creatures are pouring in from the epicentre of the blast. A bomb drop is arranged but flying creatures destroy the plane as it gets close. Tensions escalate between Russia and US in the face of the worldwide panic. Russia launches a nuclear weapon at its own failing border defences, trying to hold the line. The US panics, and launches a retaliatory attack. Russia responds in kind, and both countries suffer heavy damages and enormous population loss. Some Shadowform are killed, but they keep coming.
Seven Days
Most of the middle East has fallen to the Shadowform, as has most of the US. The first landform creatures arrive on the US coast, and are spreading into Europe. China has the most success in holding back the Shadowform, having had the most warning and opportunity to observe the failed attempts across Europe. It is the Chinese military that realise the Shadowform creatures are visible in UV light, and vulnerable to dry ice attacks. This holds their defences for a while, and they fight hard.
Ten Days
China's defences are overwhelmed, and the Shadowform flood in. Australia and New Zealand join forces to guard the Australian northern coastline, using what was learned from China's last stand. Australian evacuees flee to New Zealand. Shadowform finally pass into Canada, having overwhelmed the defences at their border too. The landform are sweeping across the US, and into Russia, having covered much of the Middle East. It is noticed that both the Shadowform and landform are slower in colder climates.
Two Weeks
Australia defends its border bravely, but ultimately falls to the Shadowform. Canada and Russia manage to hold a little longer, taking advantage of their savage winters. Most of Africa has fallen.
Three Weeks
Canada falls. Alaska falls. Africa falls. The last resistance to the Shadowform is waged in Russia. The border is pushed back and back to the eastern coast. Russia finally falls to the Shadowform, three and a half weeks after the Rip.
Four Weeks
Shadowform infestation is thought to be global. There is no remaining meaningful military pushback. Survivors find pockets of safety on remote islands, cruise ships and in northern areas of Russia, Greenland and Antarctica. The landform have covered most of the US, most of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and China. Communication between countries ceases. Most power structures have collapsed.
Two Months
Global infestatation is considered 100%. 95% of the world's population has deceased. Those not killed by the Shadowform, the landform or the nukes, face disease, lack of food and lack of healthcare. Most power grids and cellular connections are down. People learn that the creatures are attracted by noise.
Six Months
With cities abandoned, CO2 levels in urban areas begin to drop. Where previously the ambient CO2 acted as a disguise for the respiration of living creatures, it is now becoming easier for the landform creatures to track the exhalations of humans. People become aware that the creatures are attracted by CO2, more than sound. Those still surviving, adapt scuba gear so that they can collect their exhaled CO2 when venturing into the Wildlands. CO2 canisters are deployed as distractions. Vampires realise that their food source is under threat, and that action is necessary to protect and preserve it. The first human-trafficking arrangements are born. Some humans hand themselves willingly to the vampires, desperate to be protected in return for blood donations. Vampires ban the murder of humans. Blood becomes the new currency.
One Year
Some human settlements are attempting to farm, to prop up the dwindling supply of non perishable food. Keeping livestock is problematic, as their exhaled CO2 attracts the creatures. Some settlements plant trees around their encampments to act as a CO2 sink. Vampires are doing the same, farming humans for their blood.
Five Years
The creatures excrete a particular kind of gas, one that is gradually building in Earth's atmosphere and changing the chemical composition of the air. The Earth lacks the natural cycle to deal with it, and so the levels continue to build, making it difficult to grow things, and making people sick. Ironically, it makes the Otherworld creatures weaker, too, and most of the Shadowform die off. The landform become slower, and less reactive. This gives some people hope. Humans have divided, some (willingly or unwillingly) submitting to vampiric control, others preferring to cling to independence living in the Wildlands. The vampires are half-starved, and there is a thriving black market in 'pure' blood. Lycans are pressed into service as border guards, given their heightened senses and increased resistance to the effects of the changing air. The air is more toxic the closer you get to the Rip. An Exclusion Zone of five miles is established in every direction. Noone can get close.
Ten Years
Human colonies are clinging to life by their fingernails. The elderly are rare, children are rarer. Most of those who have survived are hardened hunters. Women are pressed into breeding by vampires to keep populations going. Some vampires train children to walk on a leash as walking bloodpacks. There are some active militia, usually centred around attempts to reach or research the Rip, through which creatures are still entering the world. There is also research underway trying to create a synthetic replacement for human blood, a cause that is celebrated by some but unpopular with others, given the fact that it will devalue real blood if successful.
He returned to the UK in 2018, and tore a hole in the veil between this world and another place, a shadow realm known as the Otherworld. Benedict's plan was to control the creatures that emerged, protect his loyal subjects while becoming architect of a new age on earth, but instead he disappeared. Otherworld demons began to pour through unchecked, and with no sign of Benedict to stem the flow, they ran rampant on the earth. There was an apocalypse.
Human and magical societies collapsed. Billions of humans, vampires, werewolves and half-breeds died, most of their global populations eradicated by the hellish creatures that seemed equally impervious to magic and bullets. The epicentre of the tear, known as 'The Rip', became an exclusion zone five miles in perimeter, inaccessible to anyone who didn't wish to die a painful death.
Ten years after the Rip, humans are still clinging to life by their fingernails, in guarded settlements. They are on the brink of extinction. Vampires protect them, afraid of starvation if humans are eradicated, but it is not a benevolent act. Humans are farmed, bred, trafficked and traded. Some humans hand themselves to the vampires, exhausted and prepared to submit themselves to a lifetime of blood donation in return for being fed and protected. Other humans cling to independence in scattered settlements in the Wildlands, struggling to survive in a world full of monsters. Women and children are at risk of being snatched by traffickers for breeding. Some vampires raise humans as pets, keeping them on leashes for their blood producing ability. Killing humans is outlawed by vampire society, but there are those who will pay handsomely for the thrill of a true kill.
Some are trying to create a synthetic substitute for human blood, to set humans free from vampire control. Others are trying to stop them, as blood is the new currency and its rarity is the source of its value. Others are afraid that without their blood to make them valuable, humans will no longer incur protection from the vampire populations and more will die. The power struggle is bitter, and desperate. No matter how many monsters are killed, more keep coming through the Rip, and nobody knows how to close it but Benedict, and nobody has seen him in a decade.
It's 2028. Will the world see 2030? Nobody truly knows.
Rough Timeline of Events
At the moment of the Rip
Benedict tears a rip through the veil into the Otherworld. There is an immediate blast of energy from the Rip that sweeps across the entire bottom half of England. The blast itself does not kill the people it touches, but it scatters Otherworld beings like spores.
30 minutes
The creatures scattered by the blast are Shadowform- they are invisible aside from a tell-tale shimmer, and can move incredibly fast. (See creature files) There is no time for defence. The south of England falls to chaos in seconds. Hundreds of thousands of people die.
One Hour
Most of Southern England has fallen to the Shadowform. They kill everything they meet. The infestation moves upward, sweeping through England toward the north. The first emergency TV broadcasts go out, but too late for those already in the creatures path. Reports are coming in of different (visible) creatures appearing at the epicentre of the blast, with wildly varying descriptions. These ones are slower than the Shadowform but no less deadly.
Six Hours
Military response is scrambled, but completely unprepared for the speed of the creatures. The Shadowform have crossed the Scottish border and covered the entire of the UK mainland landmass. France, Belgium and the Nethrerlands try to coordinate a military response at their coastlines. Ireland stops all boat and ferry crossings from the mainland. It is useless. The Shadowform appear to be able to cross water, and soon carnage begins on the coasts, swiftly overwhelming military defences.
Twelve Hours
The slower landform creatures are spreading up the country, killing off many of the survivors of the Shadowform siege. 95% of the UK population is dead. Some of the flying landform creatures bring down helicopters attempting to evacuate survivors. More and more creatures pour through the Rip. The Shadowform have overtaken most of Ireland, and half of France.
Twenty Four Hours
Europe makes an emergency military response, trying to hold back the Shadowform at the French and German inland borders. Spain tries to protect its border too, but efforts fail. Emergency evacuations take place along the Spanish border, people fleeing inland. It won't help. Russia refuses to accept evacuees from Easter Europe. There are the first reports of deaths in Sweden.
Thirty Six Hours
Spain falls. The infestation spreads into Portugal, Morocco, and in the other direction into Poland, Ukraine and Belarus. Russia mobilises troops to the Ukrainian border and there is sabre rattling as Russia accuses the US of being the root cause of the attack.
Forty Eight Hours
The first Shadowform arrive on the US coast, having crossed the sea. The first landform creatures make it to Scotland. Too late, it's realised that more and more creatures are pouring in from the epicentre of the blast. A bomb drop is arranged but flying creatures destroy the plane as it gets close. Tensions escalate between Russia and US in the face of the worldwide panic. Russia launches a nuclear weapon at its own failing border defences, trying to hold the line. The US panics, and launches a retaliatory attack. Russia responds in kind, and both countries suffer heavy damages and enormous population loss. Some Shadowform are killed, but they keep coming.
Seven Days
Most of the middle East has fallen to the Shadowform, as has most of the US. The first landform creatures arrive on the US coast, and are spreading into Europe. China has the most success in holding back the Shadowform, having had the most warning and opportunity to observe the failed attempts across Europe. It is the Chinese military that realise the Shadowform creatures are visible in UV light, and vulnerable to dry ice attacks. This holds their defences for a while, and they fight hard.
Ten Days
China's defences are overwhelmed, and the Shadowform flood in. Australia and New Zealand join forces to guard the Australian northern coastline, using what was learned from China's last stand. Australian evacuees flee to New Zealand. Shadowform finally pass into Canada, having overwhelmed the defences at their border too. The landform are sweeping across the US, and into Russia, having covered much of the Middle East. It is noticed that both the Shadowform and landform are slower in colder climates.
Two Weeks
Australia defends its border bravely, but ultimately falls to the Shadowform. Canada and Russia manage to hold a little longer, taking advantage of their savage winters. Most of Africa has fallen.
Three Weeks
Canada falls. Alaska falls. Africa falls. The last resistance to the Shadowform is waged in Russia. The border is pushed back and back to the eastern coast. Russia finally falls to the Shadowform, three and a half weeks after the Rip.
Four Weeks
Shadowform infestation is thought to be global. There is no remaining meaningful military pushback. Survivors find pockets of safety on remote islands, cruise ships and in northern areas of Russia, Greenland and Antarctica. The landform have covered most of the US, most of the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa and China. Communication between countries ceases. Most power structures have collapsed.
Two Months
Global infestatation is considered 100%. 95% of the world's population has deceased. Those not killed by the Shadowform, the landform or the nukes, face disease, lack of food and lack of healthcare. Most power grids and cellular connections are down. People learn that the creatures are attracted by noise.
Six Months
With cities abandoned, CO2 levels in urban areas begin to drop. Where previously the ambient CO2 acted as a disguise for the respiration of living creatures, it is now becoming easier for the landform creatures to track the exhalations of humans. People become aware that the creatures are attracted by CO2, more than sound. Those still surviving, adapt scuba gear so that they can collect their exhaled CO2 when venturing into the Wildlands. CO2 canisters are deployed as distractions. Vampires realise that their food source is under threat, and that action is necessary to protect and preserve it. The first human-trafficking arrangements are born. Some humans hand themselves willingly to the vampires, desperate to be protected in return for blood donations. Vampires ban the murder of humans. Blood becomes the new currency.
One Year
Some human settlements are attempting to farm, to prop up the dwindling supply of non perishable food. Keeping livestock is problematic, as their exhaled CO2 attracts the creatures. Some settlements plant trees around their encampments to act as a CO2 sink. Vampires are doing the same, farming humans for their blood.
Five Years
The creatures excrete a particular kind of gas, one that is gradually building in Earth's atmosphere and changing the chemical composition of the air. The Earth lacks the natural cycle to deal with it, and so the levels continue to build, making it difficult to grow things, and making people sick. Ironically, it makes the Otherworld creatures weaker, too, and most of the Shadowform die off. The landform become slower, and less reactive. This gives some people hope. Humans have divided, some (willingly or unwillingly) submitting to vampiric control, others preferring to cling to independence living in the Wildlands. The vampires are half-starved, and there is a thriving black market in 'pure' blood. Lycans are pressed into service as border guards, given their heightened senses and increased resistance to the effects of the changing air. The air is more toxic the closer you get to the Rip. An Exclusion Zone of five miles is established in every direction. Noone can get close.
Ten Years
Human colonies are clinging to life by their fingernails. The elderly are rare, children are rarer. Most of those who have survived are hardened hunters. Women are pressed into breeding by vampires to keep populations going. Some vampires train children to walk on a leash as walking bloodpacks. There are some active militia, usually centred around attempts to reach or research the Rip, through which creatures are still entering the world. There is also research underway trying to create a synthetic replacement for human blood, a cause that is celebrated by some but unpopular with others, given the fact that it will devalue real blood if successful.
