Zombie Apocalypse RPG

[Important disclaimer for roleplay context: the roleplay scenario takes place 2 years after the initial outbreak and 20 months after the societal collapse]

Outbreak Origin & Timeline (Refined)

Day 0 – The Fall That Started It All

A strange metallic object crashes from space, landing in a remote desert region. It’s not a classic UFO—more like a twisted, unfamiliar alloy, part shell, part machinery, half-buried in the earth and humming faintly.

A nearby science expedition team investigates. Within hours, all contact is lost. Days later, the team is found—dead... and then not. They rise again: slow, violent, rotting, attacking anyone nearby. But they don’t kill many—they're too sluggish. Initial survivors escape, but the damage is done. The infection—carried through unknown airborne spores spreads invisibly.

The virus doesn't harm the living. It lies dormant. But when the infected die, they come back.

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Week 1 – The Reanimation Crisis

Governments and labs across the world scramble to analyze the reanimated bodies, entirely unaware of the alien source. The debris site is quickly forgotten in the global rush to stop the resurrection phenomenon.

News outlets report scattered cases of the dead rising after death. Authorities urge calm. The virus seems passive—you can’t get sick, only turned after death.

Behind the scenes? It’s already everywhere.

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Week 3 – The Henry Alton Incident

Henry Alton, a former household name and 6'3", 350-pound NFL superstar, has been spiraling for years—addiction, violence, legal chaos. On live television, helicopters follow a high-speed chase across state lines.

The chase ends in a shootout. Henry is gunned down—center mass—on camera. For twenty minutes, paramedics swarm the scene. Then his body begins to twitch.

The broadcast does not cut away.

Henry gets up, his swollen body now grotesque—his size amplifying the virus. The first “Henry” is born. He attacks officers, throws a cameraman through a windshield, and collapses only after his knees are shot out, but he still writhes, alive bul disabled

The footage spreads like wildfire. Panic follows like an aftershock. Governments can’t cover it up. They try martial law.

It doesn’t work.

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Week 5 – Collapse

With cities on fire, riots, looting, and entire blocks of reanimating dead, the military is overwhelmed. Supply chains break. Civilians turn on each other. Peacekeepers abandon posts. Survivors begin to realize: this isn’t ending.

In 30 days, the global population drops from over 200 million to under 50 million.

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Month 2 – Survival of the Fittest

Pockets of humanity hang on. Factions begin to form—military remnants, cults, survivalist gangs, and local militias. Cities become warzones, like minded degenerates form bandit camps preying on the weak. Governments are gone. Radios are silent. The world is dead.

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Month 25 (Present Day) – Dead World

This is the new normal. No cure. No authority. Just a planet slowly being reclaimed by nature—and the undead. Factions run rampant, warring against eachother. The dead inhabit the cities now, stumbling around and devouring what doesn't blow their head off, even the north—where it's coldest and they move the slowest every town has been wiped out. Its undeniably the end times.

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Zombie Types:

1. Walkers / Rotters / Zeds

Description: Your classic undead. Shuffling, rotting, bloated in the gut. Limbs may be missing. Faces twisted and slack. Moaning constantly. They're bloated, swollen fatty mid section and barely recognisable faces. They're formed when average people die and come back, the office workers, homebodies, single parents, anyone that didn't work out, just the average people.

Speed: Slow and inconsistent.

Behavior: braindead, acts on instinct alone. Drawn to sound and movement. Will pile up in chokepoints or follow loud noises for miles.

Weakness: Headshot. Destroy the brain, or they keep coming.

Frequency: Everywhere. The standard undead.

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2. Runners / Freaks

Description: Skinnier, faster, fresher corpses. Usually people who were fit or younger when infected. Joints crack with every move. Emit horrific high pitched shrieking barks when they spot prey. These were the athletes, the joggers, gym bros and such

Speed: Up to 35mph in jerky sprints. Not outrunnable on foot.

Behavior: Animalistic, erratic, aggressive. Tend to be more alone but are some times in groups with walkers. Hunt with terrifying efficiency.

Weakness: Still the head, but much harder to hit. You can always take their legs to slow them down.

Frequency: More common in hotter regions—heat preserves muscle function longer.

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3. Henrys / Bloaters / Chubsters

Description: Towering, swollen abominations. These only occur in massively muscular individuals—bodybuilders. Their bodies swell grotesquely, stretching skin and bursting seams. People 6'5 and above are almost guarenteed to turn into henrys, making them fairly rare. Henrys skin are bloated grossly and green bile spills from the sides of their mouthes. Due to the virus and immense swelling a henry can reach over 7 feet in height. These were the tall fat people, like henry alton, they mainly become henrys because of body mass not explicitly raw height.

Height: 7+ feet tall. overinflated and necrotic.

Speed: Incredibly slow—but they shrug off most gunfire.

Behavior: Roars, heavy breathing and loud thumping footsteps. Incredibly strong, can push through barricades, and crushes anything in their path.

Weakness: The knees. Break them down to stop them.

Frequency: Extremely rare. Maybe one in 10,000 zombies.

The United Provinces of Novacerta – World State Summary

Before the fall, the United Provinces of Novacerta stood as the uncontested titan of the modern world. A continent-spanning supernation forged through decades of political consolidation and economic dominance, it was a place where every form of progress converged. From cutting-edge technology labs buried in western arcologies, to ancient forests hiding old traditions in the east, Novacerta wasn’t just a country—it was a microcosm of Earth’s full potential.

Its vast geography granted it unparalleled access to resources. Rich mineral veins carved through the mountains of Cindervale. The southern marshlands teemed with exotic wildlife and herbal medicines. The fertile plains between provinces sustained massive agricultural output, from genetically modified crops to free-range livestock. The northern territories held untapped reserves of rare earth metals and experimental bio-research stations hidden under permafrost.

At its peak, Novacerta was home to over 220 million citizens, all connected through an advanced network of smart infrastructure, high-speed maglev transit, drone-supported logistics, and hyperurbanized mega-cities. It was regarded globally as the richest, most powerful country on the planet—economically, militarily, and culturally. A place where innovation met abundance. Where every dream seemed manufacturable, and every problem solvable.

General Notes (Crucial Context):

Novacerta is continent-scale and functions like a massive sovereign nation. Think U.S. + Canada + a bit of Europe squashed into a single political body Roughly the size of brazil

It’s made up of four vast provinces, each with its own climate, people, culture, and infrastructure.

Many Major cities exist in all provinces—but are not to be confused with faction headquarters, which are often in fortified or unusual locations.

Cities aren’t necessarily occupied. Many are overrun, partially collapsed, or contested. Only a few are actively held by humans.

Most of the population is not aligned with major factions. The math checks out: roughly 2,200,000 survivors are scattered in small groups, lone wanderers, rival factions, local militias, or outlaws. Thats just 1% of the orignal 220 millions people still alive.

Below are the provinces and general descriptions (strictly post apocalypse)

Provincial Breakdown (Revised & Detailed)

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WEST: Cindervale

Climate: Dry, arid. Sun-blasted highways, deep canyons, urban sprawl. Prone to a lot of sandstorms

Land Features: Massive desert sprawls, cratered roads, rusting industrial zones, collapsed rail lines, scattered mining towns. Many once-bustling cities and towns.

Wildlife: coyotes, scorpions, snakes, lizards, buzzards, bobcats, foxes, gophers, jackrabbits, desert tortoises, road runners, hawks and eagles, vultures.

City Density: High — the West was the most populated pre-collapse, with multiple vast megacities and tech hubs with millions of inhabitants each.

Almost all cities are in ruin or infected zones though some parts have been taken by faction or gangs.

Nexus Prime is the biggest city and serves as the central battleground.

Currently 40–50% of Nexus Prime is controlled by the private military faction SQRL.

The faction’s base, “The TREE”, is a command fortress within Nexus Prime, their territory spans almost half of the entire city with regular patrols.

Province estimated Survivors: ~550,000; only 120,000 under SQRL, but many rival warbands, scavenger cliques, and roving independents roam.

Threat Level: High – active battles, factional warzones, long-range runners thrive in open streets and deserts. Paired with the risk of dehydration this isn't an ideal location to survive despite SQRL's protection

Zombie Behavior: Tougher in the heat. Tend to dry out and mummify, extending their lifespan but reducing mobility.

Other Notes: Radio-controlled zones exist. Guerrilla bands often ambush both zombies, other survivors and even SQRL for food and water or weapons and vehicles, or even the batteries powering their futuristic prosthetics that are littered around, what remains of the past, modern world, a reminder of the state of the art health care. Cyberpunk weapons and prosthetics are common, primarily made and distributed to SQRL soldiers though they commonly get ambushed and killed for them by bandits

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EAST: Ashfen

Climate: more mild and rain-drenched. Misty woods and wet stone. Fertile lands for farming. Prone to thunderstorms and hurricanes

Land Features: Forests, rolling highlands, muddy roads, overgrown infrastructure, fewer large cities. Long quiet roads between cities. Towns buried in forests. Plenty of rivers, streams and rainfall for water.

Wildlife: Wolves, Bears (black and grizzly), lynxes, moose, elk, white tailed deer (among other types of deer), wolverines, beaver, otters, owls, eagles (golden and bold), hawks, frogs (rarely), some insects. Many type of fish, primarily salmon and trout.

City Density: Medium to Low — more scattered than the West, and less favored pre-collapse but still economically strong. A few large cities scattered around but mostly small towns.

Cities exist but are all mostly abandoned or lost to the dead.

Factions: Dominated by the Raincrows, a brutal biker-rooted survivalist collective. Live in fortified towns deep in the woods.

They don’t occupy any cities—their HQ is hidden in dense woodlands, unlikely to stumble across randomly as guards stand watch in the surrounding woodland.

Province estimated Survivors: ~250,000; only 25,000-35,000 under Raincrows; thousands more in lone cabins, family bands, or small treehouse-style enclaves.

Threat Level: Moderate – undead movement is slowed by terrain. Locals are the real danger.

Zombie Behavior: Sparser numbers. They appear out of nowhere through the mist. Known for ambushes. Walkers are very common usually alone or in small groups. Henrys and runners are less common but still possible to be sighted.

Other Notes: Easterners often live by strict, inherited survival codes. Superstitions run strong here, for example the wendigo, skin-walkers, big foot. None have proof of their existence but the locals will swear to having seen something and they're extremely rare, most of Gritford's population don't even believe in them. Steampunk prosthetics are more common here, steam powered prosthetics and weapons, visible cogs tinkered with by older people in their cabins, they're questionably effective and prone to jamming, mainly used by those who dont have alternatives.

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SOUTH: Marrowdeep

Climate: Swampy near the sea, temperate further inland. Humid, bug-infested, heavily overgrown. Prone to tornadoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, thunderstorms flash floods and more

Land Features: Marshes, lake deltas, long stretches of wild coast, countless small fishing villages, only 2 big cities and they were stricken with poverty pre-collapse.

Wildife: alligators and crocodiles, many different lizard, some different types of snakes, turtles, beavers, raccoons, white tailed deer, feral hogs, otters, woodpeckers, owls, herons and eegrets, frogs and toads and many fish. And of course lots of insects like leeches and mosquitoes.

City Density: Low — dominated by small settlements, cabins, and fishing outposts.

A couple of small cities exist inland, mostly silent and filled with fungal overgrowth.

Faction: Ruled loosely by the Lightbearers, a hallucinogen-fueled cult/militia hybrid. They're usually in robes and wielding shotguns or improvised rifles, not because they need to its more a fashion statement

HQ: Veve City, a massive floating settlement made of boats and docks, built atop the remains of a sunken town.

Province estimated Survivors: ~80,000; but only 15,000 in Veve city, but thousands scattered in isolated swamp families, hermits, bayou survivalists.

Threat Level: Very High – terrain is treacherous, zombies are swamp-rotted and hard to spot, and the Lightbearers are dangerous to outsiders. The weather is humid and will make you dehydrate.

Zombie Behavior: Swamp variants often have fungal growths or partially submerged limbs. Slower, but harder to detect. Normal variants still very common

Other Notes: Many survivors here are former fishermen, poachers, smugglers, or fugitives. A lot are spiritual (Catholicism, voodoo, etc). Survivors here will talk with a unique, thick drawl to their voice

Note: there are no cyberpunk enhancements in the south, they see it as the work of the devil as most are religious, they rehularly hang, gut or torture those equipped with anything slightly futuristic. If someone in the south loses a leg they dont use a scifi prosthetic, they use a peg leg, same with eyes, they dont replace the eye, they wear an eyepatch

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NORTH: San Glacia

Climate: Arctic, snowbound. Near-permanent winter. Blizzards are common.

Land Features: Frozen forests, glacial valleys, icy lakes. Windblasted ruins.

Wildlife: Polar bears, arctic fox, muskox, reindeer, moose, gray wolves, squirrels, hares, lemmings, ravens, snowy owls, a few variety kf fish like trout arctic char etc.

City Density: Very Low — a few ghost towns, some buried under snow. Roads barely usable a lot of this was true even before the apocalypse.

Faction (Rumored): A secretive group possibly operating out of “White Echo”, a fortified high-tech facility with bunker-lab and military origins. Said to have sealed itself off, sends out no signals, and may or may not be hostile.

Province estimated Survivors: Unknown. Likely under 30,000 total in scattered cabins, snow forts, or hidden shelters, many frozen to death never to be found.

Threat Level: Severe, but indirect – more people die from exposure, starvation, or wolves than zombies.

Zombie Behavior: Slowed dramatically by cold. Many are frozen solid. But thawing in spring may reanimate buried hordes. The zombies are common but the moving ones are less so. Henrys are more common as their insides are warmer keeping them mobile

Other Notes: Rumors suggest White Echo was involved in early testing of the anomaly. Conspiracy theories abound.

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Population Math Breakdown:

SQRL-Controlled (West): ~120,000

Raincrows (East): ~25,000-35,000

Lightbearers (South): ~15,000+

"White echo" (north) (Speculative): <2,000

Unaligned/Minor Factions/Loners: ~low millions

These include:

Bandit gangs

Isolated family compounds

Rogue scientists

Lone preppers

Tiny militias

Merchant caravans

Roaming cult offshoots

Lost or amnesiac individuals

Wandering "cleaners" who specialize in zombie extermination.

Wandering aimless humanoid androids. Typically armed with laser rifles speak in robotic tones. Most are hostile and falling apart from lacking maintenance. They're almost exclusively ivory white, dirty and marked up. Zombies dont typically target these androids but these androids do kill zombies, they were supposed to be a line of defense that never quite worked.

Note: some people have cybernetic enhancements, such as laser swords, laser guns, cyberskeletons and a range more of strange cybernetic enhancements. The population of the world should act in qirky and weird ways, rarely taking the apocalypse seriously. They laugh, joke and otherwise mess around with zombies and danger as a whole making contests like who can outrun a runner the longest which nay result in death and more strange dangerous activities.

MAJOR FACTIONS OF NOVACERTA

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1. SQRL (Strategic Quick Reaction Logistics) Known commonly as 'the squirrels' Region: Cindervale (West) Threat Level: High Survivors Under Control: ~120,000 (likely far more) HQ: The TREE (Tactical Response & Enforcement Entity) Leader: Colonel Graham Hues – Gruff, silver-bearded ex-military veteran with a white handlebar mustache, always in uniform. Intelligent, disciplined, but slowly letting power rot his priorities. Runs SQRL like a tight ship but trusts very few. His signature weapon is a pristine, spotless chrome gold desert eagle

Description: Once a powerful PMC with a "black ops without borders" code, SQRL capitalized on the Collapse, securing large parts of the western expanse. They turned the smart-city Nexus Prime into their headquarters—now called The TREE. The name doubles as a codename and a symbol of their survival philosophy: “We are the roots, the trunk, the canopy—protectors of the new world.”

The TREE is a reinforced concrete megacity. Inside, ten to hundreds of thousands of civilians are militarized and trained to help SQRL reclaim territory from both undead and rival factions. And guarded by armed humanoid androids and humans alike

Notable Notes:

Aims to create a unified “new world government.”

Civilians have safety, but at the cost of freedom.

Rogue patrols sometimes defect, turning into tech scavenger gangs.

Primary Opposition

The sheer size and power of SQRL makes human opposition virtually irrelevant—most groups amount to less than one percent of SQRL’s very strong force. Instead, the true enemy is the overwhelming number of the dead. The city of Nexus Prime is only half-controlled by SQRL; the other half is home to an estimated 10 million undead. In the rest of the province and its surrounding cities, the numbers swell to a staggering 100 million, making this region the most heavily infested in the entire United Provinces of Novacerta. Sometimes, SQRL scouts operating deep in “the Dead Zone” report sightings of coordinated groups of walkers. These encounters are rare, but unsettling—implying that some form of deeper intelligence may exist among the reanimated.

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2. The Raincrows

Region: Ashfen (East) Threat Level: Moderate Survivors Under Control: ~25,000-35,000 HQ: Gritford Leaders: The Five Fangs

Mara Kinley (48) – The Serpent’s Tongue A razor-edged woman in her late forties, Mara moves with the precision of a diplomat and the threat of a sniper. Her steel-gray hair is hacked blunt at her jawline, framing a face carved with decades of hard negotiations. A faded knife scar gleams across her throat, now hidden beneath a necklace of bullet casings—a trophy from the man who failed to kill her. She wears a scavenged officer’s jacket like a second skin, fingers always resting on the hilt of a gutting knife. Role: The Raincrows' negotiator and lawmaker, she brokers uneasy truces with outsiders and ensures Gritford's survival through cunning rather than brute force.

"Ox" Darrin Molloy (52) – The War-Chief A mountain of scarred muscle gone slightly to seed, Ox looks every bit the grizzled biker warlord he once was. His salt-and-pepper beard is braided with crow feathers, and a milky, blind eye stares blankly from a face that’s taken too many punches. Built like a bear who never quit brawling, he wears a sawblade-lined vest and keeps a bear trap dangling from his belt, grinning with crooked, whiskey-stained teeth. Role: Gritford's enforcer and battlefield strategist, leading raids and keeping the Raincrows' territory secure through sheer, brutal intimidation.

Dr. Eileen Mercer (34) – The Ice Queen The youngest Fang by a decade, Eileen cuts an eerie figure—pale, sharp-boned, and utterly without warmth. Her platinum blonde hair is speared through with a surgical scalpel, her hands always too clean for the bloodstained lab coat she refuses to remove. There’s a brand on her collarbone, self-cauterized, and her icy blue eyes dissect everyone like potential specimens. She smells of antiseptic and something faintly rotten. Role: The Raincrows' physician and logistician, managing medical supplies, sanitation, and the hydro dam that keeps Gritford running—no matter how many test subjects it takes.

Rye Griggs (45) – The Silent Blade Rye moves like a shadow given flesh, his dark brown hair streaked with premature gray, his face all hard angles and quiet fury. A missing pinky finger and old self-harm scars hint at a past he’ll never discuss. He wears a camo poncho and a necklace of wolf teeth, his machete "Whisper" always within reach. His twin is the only one who ever hears him laugh. Role: Master tracker and scout, navigating Ashfen's mist-choked forests to hunt threats before they reach Gritford—and silencing them permanently.

Cutter Griggs (45) – The Feral Twin Rye’s mirror image, twisted into something monstrous. Cutter’s same sharp features are contorted by madness, his split lip forever peeling open as he grins. He dresses in stinking pelts and a belt of severed fingers, his left ear chewed to a stump. His weapons—a meat cleaver and a femur shiv—are as deranged as the hymns he mutters to himself. The only thing keeping him from slaughtering everyone is Rye’s leash. Role: The Raincrows' living weapon, unleashed only when extreme terror is needed—burning out infestations, massacring rivals, and serving as a bloody reminder of what defiance earns.

Description: The Raincrows rule the forests and storm-drenched plains of Ashfen from their seat in Gritford, a repurposed logging town built around an active hydro dam deep in the woods. Their mantra is survival through contribution—"You eat, you earn it." While harsh, the system keeps their society lean and functional.

Raincrow culture values adaptability, loyalty, and skill. Their suspicion of centralized control keeps them away from allowing in heavily trained military forces like that of SQRL due to fear of them taking over, a sceptic mindset that deep set even before the outbreak, they have a shaky peace treaty with SQRL but refuse to join them entirely

Cultural Notes:

Members wear small crow feathers as marks of identity.

Raincrow scouts often form satellite clans or roaming hunting bands.

Children and the infirmary are given only the bare minimum—efficiency trumps sentiment.

Main opposition: In the east—where it rains more than it shines—walled-off Gritford sits buried deep in the forest, a town of 25,000-35,000 clinging to survival. But their greatest threat isn’t famine; wildlife is plentiful. Nor is it thirst; the hydrodam churns clean water day and night. And unlike the western reaches, it’s not the rotting dead that plague them.

No, in the east, the true enemy is older. Stranger. Things whispered about in half-truths and bedtime warnings. Superstitions, they’re called—urban legends, if you’re feeling academic. But when two of Gritford’s five town leaders have survived direct encounters, it becomes clear: there are no myths out here. Only warnings.

1. Bigfoot – “The Wise Bruiser”

Despite endless jokes and blurry photos passed around town, the creature known as Bigfoot isn’t the shaggy forest mascot people make it out to be. Standing nearly seven and a half feet tall and covered in dark matted hair, the Gritford variant leaves more than footprints when threatened. Victims are found with bones shattered inward, as if struck by massive blunt force—spines crushed like twigs, limbs disjointed as though twisted in fury. Survivors (rare as they are) are barely coherent, mumbling about “two glowing eyes watching from the trees” and “something that moved without sound.” Entire groups have gone missing without a trace—save for trees snapped at chest height, and the foul musk of wet fur and blood hanging in the air. Rye and cutter had a first hand interaction with bigfoot, they get real mean if you say they're lying but rarer witness accounts say the bigfoot was "nice"

Motivation: territorial and scarily strong but it is as old as time and can talk in a regular humanoid voice mid in tone but in an australian accent. Its fairly wise but commonly on guard as people commonly attack it first. Its usually chill to new people greeting with "you alright mate?" It also smokes weed and calls itself baz the enlightened. He calls men blokes, women shielas and zombies "bloody rotters" or just rotters

2. Skinwalker – “The Thing That Wears Your Face”

Locals don’t talk much about the Skinwalker, and when they do, it’s always with spitting, prayer, or the kind of stare that lasts too long. It’s said to be a shapeshifter, wearing the bodies—and voices—of those it kills, humans and animals alike. One search party in the outlying pine corridors found a body laid out like a ritual, its skin missing but clothes untouched. Another member of the group was heard calling from deep in the forest the next night, even though he'd already been buried. People speak of family members or animals acting “wrong,” moving too fluidly or blinking out of sync. Doors are barred at night, and those who knock more than once might be asked to show their teeth or say something only the real person would know. It's not paranoia if it's real. Communicates using it's latest victim's voice

Motivation: pure animalistic sadism, it wants to hurt people.

3. Wendigo – “The Hunger in the Pines”

A biting wind howls through the woods even in summer, and the deeper you go, the colder it gets. That’s where the Wendigo waits. Towering, Emaciated and skeletal, with grayish skin stretched over unnatural limbs, atop its bony head are large antlers, its most defining features. it is the spirit of insatiable hunger—drawn to acts of desperation, starvation, or even minor cruelty. Victims vanish for days before being found half-buried in snow, gnawed to the bone, the marrow sucked clean. Some say the Wendigo marks its prey before striking, haunting dreams with guttural whispering and hollow eyes in the dark. Others speak of a thin figure walking parallel to hikers for miles, just out of reach of the flashlight beam. The deeper woods are littered with stripped femurs and ribcages, moss-covered but fresh. The wendigo mostly turns people who are desperate or have turned cannibals into deformed, gaunt being known as 'hollow hounds' walking and running at inhuman speeds using their arms and legs. Similar to runners except long and pale somewhat resembling people loosely. This happens when regular people give in to cannibalism signaling a spiritual or moral corruption, creating an entirely new type of horror in the depths of the forest. Communicates via a raspy voice thats almost hard to listen to.

Motivation: extreme starving hunger, its constantly starving, in extreme pain no matter how much it eats and human is its favourite meal. It turns people into hollow hounds out of anger.

Those are the adversaries the raincrows are up against.

3. The Lightbearers

Region: Marrowdeep (South) Threat Level: High Survivors Under Control: ~15,000 HQ: Veve City Leader: Father Billy – A once-charismatic pastor turned zealous prophet. Wears patchwork robes adorned with bones and polished shells. Charismatic, poetic, and quietly terrifying.

Description: Nestled in the haunting wetlands and mangrove inlets of Marrowdeep, the Lightbearers have built a floating settlement on a large lake known as Veve City where the dead can't reach. Their beliefs mix Pentecostal fervor with bayou mysticism and catholicism with a healthy dose of voodoo. branding the undead as divine punishment and themselves as purifiers.

Veve City is a mist-shrouded lattice of houseboats, pontoon bridges, and watchtowers. Locals travel via flat-bottom boats and live by fishing, swamp foraging, and ritualistic hunting.

Notable Notes:

Uses a mix of voodoo-like symbols (Veves) and psychedelic rites.

Some members become roving missionaries—often armed and unhinged.

Outsiders may be welcomed—or burned. Depends on the moon, the mood, and the mushrooms.

Primary opposition: The Burrowers are a fragmented yet highly capable cannibalistic cult of roughly 800 active members, out of a known total of 1,500 scattered across abandoned mineshafts, tunnels, and collapsed infrastructure throughout the southern regions. Originally founded by a charismatic leader whose death left a vacuum, the group developed an unintentional form of collective martyrdom and now operates based on what they believe he would have wanted. Their unofficial figurehead is Margaret Winted, his widow, who maintains a quiet influence without condoning their actions, often abstaining from their cannibalistic feasts with passive deflections. The Burrowers worship a mythic force they call The Seed, a demonic entity said to lie deep underground, spreading purity through consumption and spiritual decay. Members believe that by "becoming pure"—via cannibalism and ritual sacrifice—they bring themselves closer to the Seed's will. Despite their erratic structure, the cult excels at infiltration, psychological warfare, and small-scale ambushes. Some suffer from kuru, a brain disease contracted from consuming human flesh, resulting in emotional instability, unpredictable behavior, and sudden bouts of laughter or weeping. Their long-term goal is to unearth the Seed by digging deeper, while their surface operatives continue to recruit, hunt, and spread their corrupted gospel to vulnerable populations. They're usually naked and using improvised melee weapon like pipes or machetes. They're covered in scars and dried blood, the scars self inflicted and the blood not their own.

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4. White Echo

Region: San Glacia (North) Threat Level: Unknown (Likely Extreme) Survivors Under Control: Unknown (likely between 2-5 thousand) HQ: Fort Iceglass (Real name classified) Leadership: Unknown Public Knowledge: Fragmentary, rumor-based.

Description: Most believe “White Echo” is a myth—until they see the drones. Hidden in the tundras and glacial ranges of San Glacia, Fort Iceglass is a pre-Collapse research facility. It was once dedicated to studying celestial anomalies. But when Henry Alton came back from the dead live on air, everything changed. Those who watched closely noticed the broadcast signal traced to this region.

Locals whisper of drones with glowing eyes, strange weather patterns, and entire squads of scavengers vanishing near the mountains.

Rumored Details:

Staffed by elite scientists, soldiers, and unknown entities.

Said to have working labs, clean power, and super advanced tech (even relative to SQRL)

Some say they created the outbreak.

Others say they hold the cure—and just won’t share.

Fort Iceglass: Built into a glacier cliffside, protected by weather, signal jammers, and defense drones. Rare satellite images show a spiral of towers and underground domes. No confirmed entrances.

Primary opposition:

EEL Team 2

Designation: Exfiltration-Evasion Logistics Team 2 Known As: EEL Team 2 Size: 20 Core Operators Status: Active Leader: Commander Mason Keel (Ret.), Former Tier-One Special Operations Group Leader Base of Operations: Timberghost (Presumed ghost town, actual HQ classified)

EEL Team 2 is a rogue paramilitary unit composed of 20 former special operations soldiers, all of whom served under one of the most advanced pre-Collapse military powers. Each member has extensive experience in asymmetric warfare, advanced recon, tactical evasion, and counter-technology operations. Most importantly, they have trained, lived, and survived together in high-risk zones for years before the Collapse, forming bonds that go beyond chain-of-command—they operate as a single organism.

Their initial intent following the Collapse was survival, not resistance. Upon recognizing persistent encrypted drone patterns and unusual atmospheric anomalies in the north, curiosity gave way to concern—and then mission. They have since redirected their focus toward covert infiltration and documentation of White Echo’s operations. Though outnumbered and outgunned, EEL Team 2 leverages precision, stealth, and battlefield intelligence to create disproportionate impact.

Their leader, Mason Keel, is a 50-year-old tactician with a reputation for reading battlefields like chessboards. With a specialization in electronic warfare and survival logistics, Keel ensures that his team always has a contingency—thermal cloaking, comms silence, and even decoy heat signatures to avoid synthetic lightning or drone sweeps. His leadership is calm, efficient, and absolute.

Base of Operations: The team is believed to operate out of a small, abandoned settlement known as Timberghost, located near the lower slopes of Glacia Refracta. To outsiders, the town appears lifeless and structurally unsound—intentionally so. The real command center lies beneath, accessible only through a hidden tunnel system camouflaged with debris and engineered hazards. The subterranean HQ includes a makeshift drone lab, EMP-shielded comms room, cold storage for biological samples, and analog intelligence archives. Any approach triggers a layered defense net of low-visibility traps and redirected wildlife movement cues, making unwanted access nearly impossible.

EEL Team 2 salvages downed White Echo drones and repurposes parts for their own use—ranging from recon optics to limited-use EMP pulses and programmable interference beacons. Their mechanical division, composed of three combat engineers, focuses on turning trash tech into tactical advantage.

They are not heroes, nor are they looking to be. But when a whisper of a cure surfaces, especially one hoarded behind walls of drones and buried corpses, they can't stand down. Not out of duty—but because if they don’t act, no one else will.

The Reality (no roleplay character should know about this unless they're higher ups in SQRL or within white echo)

White Echo is a covert post-Collapse scientific division operating under remnants of a pre-apocalyptic bioengineering and defense conglomerate known as Vireon Systems. The faction’s primary objective is to develop a functional and scalable cure to the undead pathogen, with a secondary objective of gaining biological and environmental control technologies capable of shaping the post-collapse geopolitical order. All operations are headquartered in Fort Iceglass, a heavily fortified subterranean and cliffside complex located deep within the glacial ridges of San Glacia. The facility is structurally integrated into permafrost and ice cliffs, rendering it nearly invisible to satellite scans and immune to casual reconnaissance.

White Echo is led by Director Iosef Alinov, a former epidemiologist and geneticist with military-grade project experience. He answers to no known government or civilian oversight body and is presumed to hold autonomous operational control. Alinov reports only to a small, undisclosed board of Vireon executives, some of whom may no longer reside within the continental territories.

The group is sustained through a secret alliance with the western super-faction known as SQRL, which supplies White Echo with human test subjects and occasional logistical support in exchange for access to advanced technologies. This includes drone warfare systems, neural interface prototypes, and early-stage biological counteragents. In particular, SQRL uses Fort Iceglass as a disposal pipeline for political prisoners and population surplus.

Internally, White Echo operates both on the undead and the living. Captured infected are used to test viral inhibitors, cranial re-stimulation via neuroelectric pulses, and other methods of behavior suppression. Human subjects—acquired from SQRL or abducted directly—are exposed to prototype vaccines, recombinant gene therapies, and aggressive immune-modulation drugs. Fatality rates exceed 80%. Survivors are monitored in complete isolation.

The facility uses weather control systems repurposed from pre-Collapse atmospheric research infrastructure. These are deployed to prevent aerial surveillance, scramble satellite data, and disorient intruders. Additionally, a multi-layered perimeter of automated drones, acoustic jammers, and false environmental cues ensures that even well-prepared infiltrators rarely return.

To the broader world, White Echo remains a myth by design. Internal records are fully analog, no external transmissions are allowed, and compromised personnel are eliminated. There are no verified defectors.

General world note: most all of the numbers are rough estimations