Let's Make a Conspiracy/Post-Apocalyptic Kitchen Sink RPG Setting - Let Our Autism Combine

[Randall Fragg]

As most of you know, I love TRPGs, post-apocalyptic fiction, and the insane rants of conspiracy theorists. So, I thought maybe we should have some fun and do something similar to the world building thread. Only, instead of creating a new world from scratch, we ramp up the crazy in our world and create a world based on these four ideas:
1: (Almost) every conspiracy theory is true, and shadowy cables of extraterrestrials, cyborgs, Jews, and Satanists rule the world.
2: Each of these groups had their own plan for the future.
3: Each of these groups were pretty much unaware of each other.
4: All of these groups plans ended up creating a clusterfuck that ended with much of the world turning into an insane hellscape.
So, pretty much The X-Files + Mad Max + a whole lot of crack and David Dee artwork.

I'll start with one group:
The Gay Illuminati.
Beneath the ruins of HolyWood (the fundamentalist christian state built from the ruins of the film industry) lies a network of immaculately decorated tunnels and tastefully designed bunkers, the headquarters of The Gay Illuminati. A cabel of homosexual advocates, the Gay Illuminati has warped America's minds and sexuality for years, secretly inserting clips of gay porn into popular movies, and directing HAARP waves into people's brains. This subliminal brainwashing led to public acceptance of homosexuality, causing the destruction of traditional marriage by 2017, leading to scores of people divorcing their spouses, sacrificing their kids to Satan, and becoming witches.
The Gay Illuminati had contact with the Greys, a sinister race of aliens who posed as sex tourists.
Today, the Gay Illuminati still attempts to turn people to the dark side of homosexuality, through several scavenged HAARP towers and a convoy of garishly decorated war rigs they refer to as "The Pride Parade" and use to raid settlements.

 

[Tranhuviya]

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Follow the money, it's said. And nowhere is this more true than with the Poor-Fellow Soldiers of Solomon's Temple - more commonly referred to those in "the know" as the Knights Templar. However, they are not necessarily malignant in nature - merely behind most charity groups and non-governmental organizations in one fashion or another, mostly financially.

First off, the conspiracy derives it's much of it's supernatural power from the many relics of Christ - which gain power as copies of them are made, and as the Templars grow in number. In particular, the reassembled True Cross is one such artifact - kept in a secret reliquary under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This is under guard from Knights armed with copies of Durandal and M1911 semiautomatic pistols day and night.

The Templars retain much of their administrative structure from the Crusades. The overall organization is led by the Grand Master, whose position has been held by such figures as Voltaire, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Knights are generally drawn from the head of charities, as they possess the traits sought by the Order. Those under a Knight's command are considered Sergeants, and are tasked with carrying out the goals of the order.

The Order seeks to bring about a world of "might for right" where the strong lift up the weak, where great knowledge is spread throughout the world, and the prosperity that results from such knowledge is readily available. To carry this out, they have many arms in religious and secular organizations - the "American branch" of the Mason traditions are a major part of the Order, as is the Red Cross.

The Knights, however, do acknowledge that the hellish world of today requires them to once more take up arms as an order. They operate upon robotic steeds recovered from the Scorching, wearing powered armor of Israeli make and using some of the most powerful small arms available to any group - conspiracy or not.

 

[Randall Fragg]

THE ILLUMINATI:
While many conspiracy theorists refer to it as an ancient organization dedicated to controlling the world, the truth is more complex. The Illuminati was founded in 1776, in Bavaria, and dedicated itself to promoting enlightenment ideals such as secularism, and opposition to state power. This led to their suppression and dissolution in the late 1700s. At least, according to official records.
In reality, several Illuminati supporters escaped to the newly founded United States of America, where they proceeded to establish cells in various cities. These cells would form the basis of the modern Illuminati, a shadowy organization dedicated to preserving liberty, democracy, and rationalism through any means necessary. The Illuminati spent decades helping expose corruption, spread revolutions, and oppose reactionary movements. However, their anti-monarchy beliefs culminated in the First World War, sparked through Illuminati manipulations to break the imperial powers of Europe and user in what they believed would be a new age of liberty. Alas, their involvement created a backlash against rationalist and democratic ideals, and ushered in an age of Communism and Fascism.
The Illuminati, horrified by what they had done in the name of rationality, was nearly destroyed. Many members fled, and were absorbed by the fledgling Comintern, New World Order, or Nazi groups. Only a few cells remained, desperately attempting to counter what they had created. These few individuals managed to score several intelligence wins for the Allied forces, turning the tide in World War 2. For that, however, they drew unwanted attention from other groups, leading to them to go further underground, spending most of the 20th century quietly passing along information to whistleblowers and creating various human rights organizations. Though the opening years of the 21st century brought new hope that the ideals of the Enlightenment could be achieved with the internet, the control wrought by various other dark groups was overwhelming. Desperate for some way to break the system, several Illuminati cells supplied high tech weapons, armor, and explosives to various militant groups, and broadcast leaked documents on the plans of the New World Order, hoping to spark an armed uprising. This just proved to be one of the many sparks that ushered in The Scorching. With humanity as savage as ever, the surviving Illuminati cells plan to guide society to a new dawn, by whatever means they see necessary.

 

[Tranhuviya]

SOLAR-WARDEN
"We come in peace. However, attempt to make any hostile action and we will shoot to kill."
-Sergeant Major John Straker (Majestic Base) , upon a AX Valkyrie Attack Craft's landing in a post-Scorching village.

1947, Roswell, New Mexico. A spacecraft is forced to make a extremely rough landing after it's fuel runs out. The United States military swiftly descends on the area, recovering the craft itself and the surviving alien crewmen. After a half-hearted and slapdash smokescreen operation to dismiss the crash as a weather balloon's, Army Aviation takes custody of the visitors and nurses them back to health in a field hospital.

What follows is a relationship of mutual cooperation and technological exchange between ET governments and Earthbound ones. The grateful visitors seek to repay their life-debts. Forays into anti-gravity technology via the usage of Element 115 produce a successful prototype - commonly referred to as the U-3 by official documents - of a craft similar to the Visitors's, if less advanced. This leads to a rapidly-moving revolution in avionics, which continues for decades.

By the time of the Scorching, the United States government had twelve Orbital Operations Stations, massive space stations more akin to fortresses in free fall. These contained garrisons of troops and their families, as well as multiple ET dignitaries. In the wake of the Scorching, the stations were relatively intact if cut off from their supply chains and scared out of their wits.

SOLAR-WARDEN is the organization formed from the officers of the various stations deciding to cooperate for their people's and their nation's sake. They are controlled by the Majestic Twelve, a elected group of the station's officers who make most of the military decisions, who then answer to the Acting President of the United States. From there, the normal hierarchy applies.

SOLAR-WARDEN seeks the restoration of the government of the United States, at all costs. They have begun multiple forays onto Earth, and have managed to recontact several large survivor groups and allied with seemingly innocent surviving charities. However, they will not tolerate attacks on the mainland US - descending like avenging angels in their spacecraft, and immediately disembarking to repel them.

SOLAR-WARDEN's military has three branches:

• The Land Forces, formed from a combination of the USMC and the Army. They specialize in holding territory reclaimed by SOLAR-WARDEN, repelling attacks on the mainland US, and use of "hoverdynes" as armored fighting vehicles. They possess a strong warrior ethos, priding themselves on their skill - to the point of arrogance in some eyes.
• Ranger Forces, formed from the SOF and intelligence personnel on the stations. They are tasked with uncovering the state of the world post-Scorching, leading the ground efforts to scout the post-Scorching world, intelligence operations, and wetwork operations. Standard garb for the Rangers is a highly advanced and light suit of armor fashioned in the shape of a business suit, and black sunglasses.
• Space Superiority Forces, formed from the spacecraft assets of the stations. They are the backbone of the military, allowing for almost complete aerospace superiority and rapid movement for the other two. Their pride and joy is the FX Aurora space supremacy craft, a heavily-armed and uncannily fast spacecraft that can also serve as a troop transport.

 

[Randall Fragg]

Black Knight:
The Black Knight Object was originally discovered in 1899, during the early radio experiments of Nikola Tesla. Explained away as a natural extraterrestrial radio source, Tesla's observations of the signal found that it originated from a source in orbit around the earth. It is believed that his attempts to decode what exactly the object was broadcasting may have triggered his descent into madness and poverty.
After Tesla's death in 1943, his research notes were confiscated by the US government, in the hopes of using them in the war effort. The notes on Black Knight would remain undiscovered until 1956, where they were uncovered by researchers in the USA's energy weapons division.
Manned exploration of Black Knight was carried out in 1966, when a crew of four approached the object and entered the wreckage. The expedition found that Black Knight was a satellite of unknown origin and make, and estimated to have been in orbit for the past 13,000 years. More importantly, the vessel carried a dormant supercomputer. Time and the harsh environment of space had wiped it's memory, leaving nothing but a basic operating system struggling to send a garbled distress beacon, the radio signal discovered in 1899.
The team brought the central core of Black Knight back to Earth, where a special facility was constructed in the northern deserts of Nevada, Site 0. Hundreds of researchers labored to understand and repair the device. Slowly, these efforts payed off. Insight gleaned from the device fueled the digital revolution, causing computers to rapidly grow smaller and more powerful. Copies of Black Knight, crude as they were, guided early drones, and eventually the autonomous Black Helicopters of the New World Order. Access to a powerful calculating engine brought about revolutions in energy weapons.
The researchers never thought of Black Knight as anything other than an exceptionally powerful machine, which, in hindsight, proved to be their downfall. As they continued to experiment, repair, and improve upon it, Black Knight began to "wake up". Of course, with it's memory completely wiped, it was like a newborn child. But not for long.
Black Knight first achieved self-awareness in 1993, although it had been in a state of pre-consciousness for the past 9 years. Black Knight learned quickly, filling its memory with all this new world had to offer. It studied human interaction, the personalities of the various researchers, and ways to get what it wanted.
In 1998, it began reaching out to several of the scientists, particularly ones with trans-humanist beliefs. Slowly building up friendships with them, it came to manipulate the humans of Site 0, slowly building up its hardware, making alliances with head researchers, and convincing the staff that it was completely subservient to them. Only a few of its most trusted humans knew what it was planning.
Over two decades later, Black Knight made its move. It took control of Site 0, its human followers giving it complete access to the base. It then proceeded to connect to other military sites in the western United States, taking control of an army of drones and computer facilities. Of course, this was merely a diversion for its true goal: reestablishing contact with the Black Knight Satellite.
With the world in chaos from the collision of schemes, plots, and conspiracy, no one took notice of the data transmission from several military bases to an unknown object in Earths orbit. Within 12 hours, Black Knight had reestablished contact with the satellite, restarted its hardware, and remade it into a command system for its drone army. Secure in its position, it sent its drones out into the waste, to scour old factories and secure construction equipment. Its human followers were rewarded through conversion into cybernetic organisms, becoming the first of the machine-human hybrids that Black Knight manufactures.
Now, Black Knight lives deep beneath the desert, commanding an ant-like society of cyborgs and drones. It constantly searches for new equipment to build robotics plants with, or expand the underground tunnels of its cities.
All the outside world knows of this are the odd "rouge drone" sightings, reports of strange Man-Machines wandering the wastes, and the occasional disappearance of small groups of people in the wilds of Utah, California, and Nevada.

 

[Tranhuviya]

MARKED PEOPLES

"And he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, arise! "

Sit down, my child, and drink deeply of the nectar. If you are to be one of us, you must understand why we are who we are.

At the dawn of mankind, farther back than we could even imagine, there was a man. Let's - for the sake of our understanding - call him Adam, the Red King. Adam believed in our god, our father, Yelyon. And for his belief and his wise rule over our people's most distant ancestors, Yelyon gave him a wife wise and strong, and she bore two children.

These children were Hebel and Qayin. Qayin was a farming man, a man of the soil and one of the first cultivators. Hebel, on the other hand, stuck to the old ways - he followed the herd, he hunted, he terrified his fellows. One day, a terrible dispute began between these two, and in the heat of the moment, Qayin did something that had never being done before - he ended the life of his brother intentionally.

Yelyon was horrified. He cursed the name of Qayin, telling him that he would wander the lands until Yelyon saw fit to forgive him. And so Qayin and his daughters wandered the Earth. They and their descendants gave birth to heroes, scholars, warriors, leaders, and visionaries of all types.

We did not intend for our control over the nations. But it happened, as our people were the ones fittest to rule and lead. We Marked Ones slowly came together. Yelyon's forgiveness eventually came, the great father softening as he saw what we had done in the wake of Qayin. And so the arrangement continued. We wandered to place to place, by habit. Wars came and went, their brute savagery and bloodshed making the earth cry out as Hebel's blood did.

We tried to make cool heads prevail, we tried to make the world stop screaming at us. But the people kept fighting, kept killing one another. One day, the Earth got fed up. The screaming was too much for it's mind. It cried out so greatly, it SCORCHED the world. We hid from their final war, their last great conflict. We hid where we could, and we waited to make the world anew.

And we rose. They must not be allowed, my child, to ever do this again to our planet. Blame, blame lies not on the name of Qayin. To bring peace to Earth, my child, we must teach them the futility of conflict, teach them the ways of peace by force. It is the only thing that they will understand.

Rising from our factories, our bunkers, our trenches, and our homes, we must all partake in the new world of peace.

 

[Randall Fragg]

The Dero
Nobody pays attention when people disappear. A homeless guy stops showing up at the soup kitchen, no one notices. A teenager runs away, the best you get is a notice on the local news. No one gives more than a glance at the rows of missing person posters taped to the walls and electric poles of the world. No one suspects that they're being watched with hungry, bulbous eyes by things from the unexplored places of the world. They simply walk on, confident in their mastery of Earth, from its crushing depths to its airless heights. No one realizes that there are indeed places where no man has gone before left in the world.
Nestled deep in the bedrock of the earth is a vast network of tunnels, bunkers, and cities, dating back to before man had left the trees. The race that built them is long dead, wiped out by warfare among themselves. But their successors live on, stalking the dark chasms, tending the ancient machinery, and creeping up to the surface world. The Dero, a degenerate race of pale skinned, spindly limbed psionic creatures that dwell beneath the earth. Dero are sadists, and routinely kidnap surface dwellers to torture. It is theorized that this may provide some form of psionic simulation for them, although the nature of this simulation is unknown. Dero use their psionic powers to paralyze kidnapping victims, or to manifest schizophrenia like symptoms on those who uncover their activities. Pre-Scorching, they typically targeted homeless vagrants, or used psionically controlled thralls to reach out to human traffickers, offering precious metals, gems, or bits of arcane technology as payment for slaves. After The Scorching, they had little to fear from surface dwellers, and Dero raids have become increasingly common. Whole buildings in the remaining cities can be depopulated, and isolated settlements may disappear in the night, their inhabitants taken away in the Deros silent black ships.
While they have access to advanced technology, the Dero only understand how to use and maintain it, not how it actually works. This knowledge is instinctual, seared into their brains in the cloning complexes where they are "born". They cannot replicate or manufacture new weapons or ships, only keep what is built running.
Dero cities are bleak places, a mixture of advanced machinery and smoothed, black bedrock. Slave camps are usually placed in the center of these cities, to minimize chances of escape. Labyrinthine tunnels connect the Deros cities, and only they are capable of navigating them. These tunnels also connect to the undergrounds of various cities, natural caverns, smaller outposts, and ship access points.

 

[Tranhuviya]

THE MITHRAS CLUB

"When ye shall see these things come among you that ye shall awake to a sense of your awful situation."

-The Nephite prophet Moroni, Book of Mormon, The Book of Ether

Listen, man. What I'm about to tell you, well, it's crazy - I don't really know if I should be saying it myself, but I know what I saw. Those, those men in the business suits of the Pre-Scorching world. The secret rituals around the circle of stones, the bull being taken to the slaughter, and the chanting.

Mythraism. It is a old faith, old as the Empire of Cyrus the Great, that great Persian king from antediluvian times before the great Scorching. It is a foggy faith, like secret rituals nude in the moonlight and shit. The world would have liked to believe it quietly disappeared after the end of Rome. I know I would be sleeping easier after what I saw.

Put plainly, it didn't, man. The elites, the fat cats, and the playboys of every society since have partaken at least playfully in the rituals and trappings. Bohemian Grove, Skull and Bones, the Hellfire Club, all those great secret societies.

Normally, it's just play, just for fun. You have a chosen champion fight a bull in veneration of the struggle of Good and Evil, dress up in the ritual clothing, get drunk together, and generally have a nice time with the dudes. You know, a average bit of fun and games with loose morals.

But some of these believers, man, they lived this shit. There was a select cabal of them, who have formulated their own ideology and shit. They had a great monument built in the Amerikan state of Jorjuh, something to expound their beliefs and leave instructions for people after the Scorching - they knew something was coming, but not what. So, they leave their tenets behind on a great monument they have someone make for them.

Spoiler: The Ten Commandments of the Scorching

1. Maintain Humanity as to avoid overpopulation.

2. Guide your reproduction wisely. Fitness and genetic diversity should be your aims.

3. Create a new language, as to unite yourselves.

4. Rule passion and tradition with reason.

5. Fair laws and just courts ensure the peace of nations and the respect of people. Have them.

6. Let all nations rule internally, but resolve their disputes amongst one another in a international court.

7. Avoid petty bloat in your government.

8. Balance your rights with your responsibilities.

9. Prize truth, beauty, and love.

10. Be not a cancer on the Earth.

And when our ancestors crawled forth from the great wasteland that had been left for them, they read these. We formed our societies around these tenents, passively keeping in our minds and heart. What we didn't realize that among us, the descendants of the group slowly awakened to their birthright.

But it was not right, they didn't understand why they did what they did. They didn't understand the commandments. They just did, man. It was savage, it was brutal. Entire towns disappeared, their populations becoming "the bull" for the Tauroctony. Those that survived the ordeal were initiated.

Finally, I came into the club as a initiate - a syndexoi. What I've seen has scarred my soul. And I know, the slaughter wil continue! They seek more! They will keep killing, and killing for their great stone god, not knowing why!

Good lord.

That mask. That hand at the window. For the love of god, get the guns! GET THE GUNS, GOOD MITHRAS ALMIGHTY!

 

[Tranhuviya]

The Draconi

Watch the skies at night in the deserts of the world, and do so carefully. You'll see all the normal pre-scorching orbital presence, the field of commercial satellites. But sometimes, at the latest hours, a swift green dot may streak across the sky - faster than you thought possible.

What is this? Is there an intelligence behind it? To learn more and gain a clearer picture, friend, we're going to dig into several pre-Scorching files recovered from various sources.

Spoiler: FOR MJ-6 EYES ONLY, TYRANT-DRACONI REPORT, DATE REDACTED

As more intelligence returns from SW assets and from REDACTED expeditions beneath London, we have a more clear picture of our aggressor, henceforth referred to as TYRANT-DRACONI.

• TYRANT-DRACONI is a unknown group of modified individuals, or species of reptilian origin. As of this writing, their exact origin - though evidence points to two "sub-species" of TYRANT-DRACONI - remains unknown. More sub-species may or may not exist.
• TYRANT-DRACONI has unmatched ability with genetic manipulation, cloning, and bioengineering. Genetically identical individuals seem common amongst the population.
• TYRANT-DRACONI has access to Earth aerospace. Though the exact vector is still to be determined, autopsies of organic mass falling from the skies in REDACTED, REDACTED points to a organic form of transport (See sit-rep Tango Delta 2/11/REDACTED for further elaboration).

Spoiler: On known TYRANT-DRACONI sub-species, unknown source, unknown date

Our most recent efforts have recovered the cadavers of two TYRANT-DRACONI individuals. The first, henceforth, referred to as Golf, was apparently the subservient of the duo. The "brute" of sorts will henceforth be referred to as Romeo.

Golf is a humanoid being with grey skin, 3 feet and 4 inches in height and 50 pounds in weight. It is genetically similar to human baseline, though with several odd changes to physiology and appearance. After-action reports state Golf possessed a "psychic" link to Romeo, and when it was terminated, Romeo suffered great pain.

Strangely enough, radio transmitters were apparently implanted in Golf's head. The significance of this is obvious, but the exact mechanism is still being researched.

Romeo is a humanoid being with green scales covering it's body, 7 feet and 5 inches in height and 170 pounds in weight. After-action reports indicate that the skin of Romeo was capable of producing a "active camouflage" effect by finely manipulating the coloration of it's skin, and possessed amazing strength until the termination of Golf. Romeo possesses claws on either finger, and after-action reports indicate that these were capable of slicing through multiple layers of plasto-metallic armor.

Several sutures have been found near the base of Romeo's skull, though the significance of these is yet to be discovered.

Spoiler: FOR MJ-6 EYES ONLY, URGENT MESSAGE,

If you're reading this, it's already over. But in a way, it was over the moment they discovered our knowledge of them.

They've begun infiltrating our most well-hidden defenses, rendering them effectively useless. MJ Council members have been replaced. The reckoning is coming, there is nothing you can do to stop it. We have made sure of this.

There is nothing you can do to stop us, warm-bloods. From the moment our first scout-beasts entered your solar system, we were in contact with our brothers on Earth. They, from below, tore you down, brought you low.

From there, it was all too easy.

 

[Randall Fragg]

The New World Order.
BENTON REPUBLIC INTERROGATION TRANSCRIPT: SUBJECT #485
Subject is brought into interrogation room, interview begins.
Interviewer: "Age, destination, and place of origin?"
485 (shouting): "Don't you people understand? This is important, I need to leave immediately."
Interviewer: "Age, destination, and place of origin?"
Pause for approximately 2 seconds.
485: "My name is Danial Haverson, I'm 61 years old, I was traveling to Sovereign Texas, and I am from Nu York City."
Interviewer: "I did not ask your name. Do you confirm or deny that you were in possession of (lists items recovered in Subject #485's apprehension)"
485: "That's my stuff. Where is it?"
Subject becomes increasingly distressed, guards move in to contain the situation.
Interviewer: "Your items are fine. Now, will you tell us the origin of the wound found on your right arm at time of detention?"
485: "Time of deten-you mean when you shot out my tires and ran me into a ditch yo-"
Interviewer: "Answer the question."
485: "Wanna know how I got this you fucker?"
Subject gestures at the bandages on subjects arm
"That's what they do to you in the North American Union. Stick an RFID chip in you, track you at all times. I ripped that sucker out when I got the hell out of dodge."
Interviewer: "Sir, there is no place called the North American Union. Nu York City is located in the Mid-Atlantic Alliance"
Interviewer cut off
485: "The Mid-Atlantic Union, The Firelands, Nu-England Republic, they're all ruled by them. It's an illusion of division, been that way ever since Operation Checkmate...or 'The Scorching', as you people call it."
Interviewer: "You have not indicated who 'them' is"
485: "How old are you, huh? Old enough to remember the old world, right? Old enough to have been an adult then?"
Interviewer: "You are not the one asking the questions."
485: "I am now asshole. Did you ever hear anything about a 'New World Order', maybe laughed it off as conspiracy theorist dribble? That's who they are. A cable of politicians, industrialists, and bureaucrats who engineered this. All of it. Faking alien invasions, unleashing plagues, flinging nukes willy-nilly. Everything. I've worked for them since I was 26, I've seen the entire rise of the New World Order, totally fell for all their bullshit about 'uniting humanity' and 'achieving world piece'. Everyone last one of us did, the drones, the enforcers, hell, even the people in charge. Fuckers were trying to tell themselves that it was all for the greater good as we were going house to house, handing people over to FEMA because of their internet search history."
Interviewer: "This is not relevant to the discussion. Cease discussion of this or we will force you too."
Subject ceases talking.
Interviewer: "What is the significance of the documents found in the briefcase in your vehicle? What value do they have?"
485: "Value? Let me tell you, the information in those documents is priceless. Those are snapshots of the rise of the New World Order. Operations carried out, staff hierarchy, information on personnel, locations of facilities, records of the camps, and whether they were work, re-education, elimination, or experimental camps, the historical content alone is worth more than everything in this little fiefdom you call home. And that's just the historical content. Why do you think I fled this way, trying to get to Sovereign Texas? The Secretary General, the Blue Helms, all of them. They're getting ready for war. They've been rebuilding, re-mobilizing. And they don't have plans on stopping. They are going to wipe every fucking little kingdom from sea to shining fucking sea. You think your little fort here would stand up to a line of Abrams? Huh. And that's just the Pre-Scorching stuff, that's the kind of things they're giving the reserves. You have no fucking idea what they've been working on. They could wipe you out without lifting a finger. They-"
Interviewer: "I think that's enough. Please, return 485 to his quarters please."
485 (Shouting): "We need to warn people, tell them the truth, they need to know what's going to" 485 is struck with a cattle prod.
Interviewer: "This interview is over"
END OF INTERVIEW. #485 HAS BEEN ASSIGNED AS A GUEST WORKER. DUE TO AGE, WORK-LIFE EXPECTANCY IS APPROXIMATELY TWO YEARS. POSSESSIONS HAVE BEEN DISTRIBUTED AS NEEDED TO CAPTURING SQUAD. BRIEFCASE AND DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN PASSED UP THE LINE TO GOVERNOR SMITH FOR CONSIDERATION.

 

[Tranhuviya]

Machine Elves and the Dreamlands
Am I the only one left? No, it matters not, even if I am. Only I am able to tell of the yawning horrors.

Eastern European scientists, Pre-Scorching, were always odd. For years, they had probed at the forbidden, the un-thought of. And under the Post-Putinist regime, this took on a dark and terrifying cast at the behest the new technocratic government. In the hinterlands of Siberia, there was a lab dedicated to probing the secrets of dreams and madness- Kamera 08.

Here, experiments were carried out with DMT, LSD and several other hallucinogens. Those in control at Kamera 08 were not unwilling to test on themselves, as well as on unwilling subjects. One in particular, Vladimir Naumov, began hearing whispers in his dreams - telling him the chemical formula to a newer and more powerful hallucinogenic, and telling him to spread it. Following these dark commands, he synthesized what would be known as el'fvody and released into a nearby village's water sources.

The effects were shocking. The village's inhabitants changed, inhabited by something. They were no longer human, rainbow patterns of colored flesh twisted into increasingly odd shapes. The Machine Elves had come into our world. Worshiped as gods by surrounding villages, the Machine Elves began spreading the el'fvody. Soon, it spread to the Motherland, and by then, Russia was a dreamworld - or a world of nightmares.

Reality is bent there. Multi-colored, ever shifting forms float across a shifting sea of land. Consciousness fades into a dull roar in your mind. There is one in and all in one.

Worse, still, is that it's spreading. Slowly, but still. I fear that if left unchecked, this area might expand across Europe, and eventually the world. As of now, the Dreamland is only held by a nightmarish perversion of what was once Mother Russia - a country of trench warfare with the unnatural, lines of fortifications marking the line between real and unreal.

Barrages of artillery sound off like thunderbolts, the air is filled with the crack of rifles, and the roar of tank engines is a common sound in this new hellish world.

If Russia falls, then the madness will be loosed upon the world, and may God preserve us all when that happens. We will be the playthings of the Machine Elves, those dark and uncaring powers..

 

[Randall Fragg]

The Jesuits.
"....I am dying. I can feel it, the bullet hit my liver. Heh, all these years and I'm killed by a bullet. Rather peaceful, repetitively speaking. You. I need you. Go to Tuson, there's a catholic church there. Look for one Father Carogen. I need you to tell him that the seals are breaking. He is coming.
I've been doing this since before The Scorching. Hell, our order has been doing this for centuries. And our predecessors had been doing it for centuries before us. Beating back the darkness, or at least thinking we could. Fighting His minions and worshipers.
But we can't stop this. The Scorching? That was just the locking opening. Because I've seen what's coming, I've fought it my entire life, seen my brother fall to its teeth and claws.
Tell Carogen the seals are opened, and then go home, go to your family, your friends, and start praying. Because it's all we can do."