Realistic or Modern Haven LORE

[queendilettante]

Hey everyone! Here's our initial lore:

Loose Timeline and General State of the Country:

Spoiler: Timeline/State

• Outbreak occurred on March 11th, 2021, when a hospital being forcibly kept quiet by the US government fell and was overrun with infected. There were leaks for a few days prior to full outbreak, but March 11th has gone down as the day the world officially ended.
• The US government fire bombed Canada and Mexico, resulting in the deaths of most of Canada and most northern Mexican city and border town civillians. The fires were one of the largest contributing factors toward the ecological disaster that is the Ashfields.
• The US government also bombed most of their densest population centers, with focus primarily outside of then-established quarantine zones. They bombed most major cities, but the bombing was targeted toward the densest residential areas. The government didn't fully flatten every city and focused on targeting residential areas within their major cities first. I'm not going to fully explain every US city lmfao so you can assume most fire power was concentrated on residential areas of cities with populations above 1 Million, but smaller cities, especially under 250,000 people, would have gotten just a couple of targeted strikes maximum.
• Despite the efforts at containment, corruption and information suppression lead to a coup, where all government officials with positions of power were executed or forcibly infected to be studied by the new government’s scientists.
• Initially existing exclusively in Baltimore, Maryland, the Reclaimed States of America (RSA), was headed by Ichiko Lewis, one of the leaders of the coup. Her leadership proved invaluable, though ruthless, in establishing Quarantine Zones across the Eastern US and locking down the Mississippi RIver.
• At the start of the RP, April 29th, 2037, Ichiko Lewis has been president of the Reclaimed States of America for many years and has not only successfully quarantined the entire Eastern front, but led the development of a successful preventative vaccine. Distribution across the RSA was swift. With Eastern life returning to a sense of pre-apocalypse normalcy, soldiers begin marching west to reclaim the rest of the continent.
• Through clever manipulation of existing satellites, RSA scientists have reestablished a functioning internet akin to 90’s era dial up, though its practical uses have yet to be fully established.
• All land west of the Mississippi River was abandoned by the US government shortly after the outbreak and were continued to be left to their own devices by the subsequent RSA. Countless smaller settlements have sprung up, fallen, and sprung up again around the wastelands. Some more major settlements, like the Mall, have gotten lucky and become microcosms of functioning societies, but they’re increasingly rare and hard to come by.
• Nature has largely thrived. Animal populations initially dwindled, but most adapted and have come to thrive with the dramatically fewer number of human settlements around. Plant life has exploded across the country as well, with most of the continent that hasn’t been burned away left completely overgrown.

Infection and Infected Information:

Spoiler: Infection

• Infection is spread through bites or bodily fluids reaching the bloodstream in ways akin to rabies.
• Incubation period for infection is only about 60 seconds.
• Stages of Infection:
  • Runners: Recently infected. Very fast, volatile, and sporadic. Known for screaming as they walk around and are viscous with the way they chase and attack prey. This stage lasts between 3 and 6 months.
  • Ghouls: The stage that always follows Runners. Ghouls have begun to have their muscles calcify, being significantly slower, less aware of their surroundings, and more quiet. They can be recognized through a pained gurgling sound they make while not chasing prey or fighting. Ghouls may be slower, but they have a small degree of natural armor and are far harder to break the grasp of. It’s easier to avoid them, but they’re deadlier than Runners if you’re caught. This stage lasts for at least a few years, though few know the specifics.
  • Ecological and other circumstantial factors play large contributing roles in the path taken once the Ghoul stage is reached. Most potential mutated branches are unknown or too rare for most survivors to ever even potentially come across.
• Known Mutated Stages of Infection beyond Ghoul:
  • Whales: In rain or flood heavy areas, it’s possible for Ghouls to turn into whales. Water mixes with the infected bloodstream and turns the endless slow muscle calcification into a disgusting elastic shell, so to speak. Whales are extraordinarily infectious, with spread of the infection almost guaranteed unless survivors in its vicinity take extreme precaution. Whales continue to swell with infected fluid until punctured, killed, and drained, or, in worst case scenarios, until they explode like a beached Whale.Reports indicate that Whales can be 3 times the size of the initial infected body or larger, and the infected will stay in this stage until death.
  • Knots: When Ghouls have open wounds and are forced into close proximity with each other, it’s possible for multiple infected to fuse together. The separated infections compete, with the winner serving as the Alpha, and in control of all fused body parts at once. While exceedingly clunky and often rendered almost stationary, Knots rarely serve much of a combat threat, though exceptions exist. Killing them, even while not much of a threat, is an ordeal, though, as the alpha’s brain needs to be located and fully destroyed.
  • Un-Ghouls: In rare circumstances, the infection can overcome muscle calcification. Un-Ghouls regain most of the viciousness and speed of Runners, but with a stronger grip. They’re not just more dangerous than the average runner in combat, but they aren’t known to ever change state again, basically creating enhanced “forever Runners.”
  • Growers: A special subclass for seemingly random mutations. The only throughline for Growers is that the infection concentrated into a random part of the body, causing it continual growth. The most common way to find Growers is with large chins, feet, fingers, or other threat-neutral part of their body. Exceptions, of course, are when the random growth becomes beneficial to the infected. Large arms, legs, mouths, nails, etc., all have the potential to turn Growers into serious threats.
  • Knights: In rare circumstances, muscle calcification turns into an exoskeleton of sorts, creating natural and self-repairing body armor for the infected. Knights are extraordinarily dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.
  • Some rumors have circulated about Ghouls that, in frigid climates, can detach and reattach their limbs at will, but they’ve never been officially documented.
  • Some Ashen also swear that the infected have adapted to the fires of the Ashfields, but as most view Ashen as glorified bandits, their cries have largely been ignored.
• The RSA has developed a preventive vaccine, though effectively no one West of the Mississippi River has yet received it.
• Natural immunity is rare, though not unheard of. Current estimates are at less than 1% of the population, but many argue that due to the nature of infection, the number could actually be much higher. Because people have only 60 seconds to turn, assuming they will, most are killed by those around them or take their own lives. It’s impossible to know how many of these deaths were by those who were actually immune.

The Mall:

Spoiler: Mall

• A group of 16 survivors, The Founders, secured the abandoned Bayside Mall near the San Francisco coast less than a year into the apocalypse. Their goal was a restoration of American values - namely consumerism - though they softened a bit to that end over time. They determined that the best way to ensure everyone’s continued lives was a thriving and safe community, so while they encourage trade and consistently take efforts to reintroduce Mall-specific currency, they tend to bend in favor of the greater good at least 60% of the time.
• The Founders and other early refugees repurposed solar panels from the city. With the help of former electrician and solar panel layout designer, Founder Jenkins, the group brought a consistent supply of power to the settlement.
• The Founders quickly established the Security Department, which serves as the settlement’s military, explorers, defensive line, and internal security.

• The Mall proper is three stories tall. The roof is mostly flat and houses many solar panels. There are also a few basement levels.
• The Mall proper is comprised of 5 anchor stores and a very large center section:
  • Target, the western anchor store, was turned into the Mall’s makeshift hospital. Charlie Harrell, a paramedic pre-outbreak, operates as a doctor and the head medic of the first floor, where all emergencies are handled. A team of nurses headed by Noelle Wintz use the upper two floors for non-emergency medical needs and long term care.
  • Barnes & Noble, the northern anchor, is home to many permanent merchants and traders. While impermanent merchants tend to utilize stalls in the parking lot, all Mall staples operate out of the Barnes & Noble. The most successful store in the B&N is the Mall’s armory, run by a barterer named George, but other staple stores and services like seamstresses/seamsters, wood workers, farm suppliers, and many others also coexist within this building.
  • JCPenney, the southern anchor, was turned into apartments. The top floor is home to the surviving Founders and most of the elected officials. The second floor houses many of the permanent merchants and “exceptional” Mall citizens. The lowest floor houses all Security Department forces and a few mercenaries, smugglers, or others that frequently partake in excursions outside Mall grounds.
  • Macy’s, the southwestern anchor, is a grab bag of a few different places. The bottom floor is used as a makeshift prison, with the second floor being partially Security Department offices and a courtroom of sorts where disputes are handled. The top floor is where government and legislative work is done.
  • Level Up Entertainment, the northeastern anchor, serves to be similar to what it was pre-outbreak. Entertainment for all Mall residents is prioritized (and paid for) here.
  • Nordstrom is a small store also connected to the Mall proper from the outside, but it’s used only for storage.
  • Inside the Mall, past the anchor stores, the floors have been turned in to various stores of necessities, temporary housing, emergency hospital overflow areas, quarantined areas for non-infection illnesses, and more.
  • Notably, the food court was turned into a massive mess haul, with food served there three times a day to all residents.

• In the Mall’s parking lot, a building was constructed as the official Security Department HQ. Aside from that, merchant and trade stalls exist year-round. When temporary housing is especially tight or whenever the Mall proper gets too hot, tents spring up across the parking lot and under shaded areas for residents to keep cool in.
• A wall exists around the parking lot, with the immediate outer area of the Mall being referred to as the “Inner Ring.”
• The “Middle Ring” contains many previously abandoned buildings that have been turned into larger areas for integral services that would take up too much space inside. Blacksmith and additional armory services exist in the middle ringe, as did the original location of Sybille’s mechanic shop, Rayney Day mechanics.
• The “Outer Ring” contains the vast majority of Mall land. The outermost “wall” is the only wall in Mall territory that actually isn’t fully walled, with fences supplementing the area still. Livestock and extra-hardy super GMO crops are handled in the west of the Outer Ring, with additional stores and services, including the current Rayney Day Mechanics, located primarily in the East. A single rundown church also exists in the west, though it’s been turned into a non denominational religious building for any Mall resident that wants to make the trek over there.
• Chickens and sheep are the two livestock in highest abundance, with horse stables in the southwest far end of the Mall’s outermost territory.
• Mall culture is a melting pot of “american capitalism” restorationist idealogues, young adults that have hardly known pre-outbreak life, and other survivors of various levels of jadedness. It’s a large community with a couple of thousand people in the 5ish square miles of territory that the Founders have claimed to this point. It’s not exactly “tight-nit,” but it’s mostly friendly and whatever magic the Founders seemed to have captured hasn’t worn off quite yet.

The Ashfields:

Spoiler: Ashfields

• With the fires raging in Canada, the Pacific Northwest was turned into the Ashfields.
• An endless raging forest fire swirls clockwise around the Pacific Northwest, consuming all life in its path in a 14 month cycle before starting anew with the life that grew to take its place.
• Ashen are a group of nomadic survivors that follow in the wake of the fires. Making use of the recently destroyed land, the Ashen have lived knowing that they were almost always safe from wandering infected in the freshly scorched earth they inhabited. Many call them bandits, but they consider themselves to be traders and scavenging survivors like any other.
• Thick smoke covers the Pacific Northwest year-round, though it sometimes reaches as far East as the Atlantic ocean. The Ashfields themselves experience a constant flurry of white ash, and for both of those reasons, Ashen are almost never seen without their gas masks.

Other Groups:

Spoiler: 👀

I don’t want to get into spoilers But unfriendly political groups, hostile settlements, cultists, fanatics, bandit, and terrorist groups litter large swaths of the wastelands between The Mall and the Mississippi River.