A thoughtful rest with Sledgequeen

This takes place in a worn down castle in a post-apocalyptic snowy hellscape on a dying planet known as Eden-227.

On New Earth, they would run a game series dubbed "Survival of the Fittest", they would cycle the trash of Earth's new Society, The Last Man Standing will be rewarded with "freedom". There have been exceptions, i.e. those who bring plenty of views from their presence alone. The best note of this would be "Rayzen", who was "freed" and then later captured, brainwashed and thrown back into the fight.

New Earth is essentially a couple continents artificially glued right back onto the face of the earth after Old Earth broke apart. DOUBLE THE SIZE of the American Continent. All the laws we know were rewrote by them. All previous life on earth was completely terminated as a result of the Corpo Wars, except Poultry and Farm Animals (due to cloning). Most exotic wildlife is dead. Outside of New Earth, it's all DEAD.

The Ulacylon Megagroup Corporation wasn't exactly beloved by all. Imagine one day your family is taken from you, thrown onto a game show against their will, pitted to death just for people's viewing pleasure... Not many would stand up to them, though the RIS made an appearance as an unknown "Freedom Fighting" organisation dedicated on bringing down the UMG. It's worth noting that RIS doesn't abbreviate to anything.

Eden, a completely different system than the one we're used to, "Sol" or "The Solar System". The system features a tiny star, probably a white dwarf star (A colder remnant of a depleted star, that VERY slowly cools down to a black dwarf star). Plenty of these "Neo-Thermal Generators" were put up across every colonized planet in the system, so we can keep them warm. Eden 227 is one of those planets.

While there's no shortage of space on New Earth, and they could literally sustain almost twice as much human life there now, Eden was colonized for further intergalactic travel, because it's the perfect hub point between New Earth and further sectors in space.

It was a pretty normal civilization, maybe a little hostile due to the harsh climate due to the less-than-optimal Neo Thermal Generators. It was comparable to Chicago, Until The Collapse happened.

It's worth noting that Eden 227 is more city-like in nature.

The AGENCY is an organization which serves as a pseudo-government in case the government in New Earth failed, they feature an interplanetary focus and have ties to other organizations, (as mentioned in several perk descriptions) allowing distant imports i.e. RIS and UMG tech.

The Agency sends out waves of Agents. These agents can be your average joe, or a geared up "cyborg" with high-tech augmentations. Each "wave" of agents comprises of around 5 units, each which do different things. In normal circumstances, the wave counter should be NO GREATER than 1.

In the events of Decaying Winter:

Wave 1 was always on the planet, pre-prepared in the case if any form of dangerous event occurred.

The Neo Thermal Generators were starting to go out, and the Second Wave was deployed to investigate the Neo Thermal Generator sites, and prevent major losses from occurring. By the time they'd arrived, it was too late. Eden was already doomed.

The Third Wave would assist in helping the planet, with forced evacuation protocols having every single civilian removed from the planet. This team was led by some of the higher tier agents, Tier 5 agents. Notably, "Valorii" and "Yosef".

Following the forced evacuation protocols, Eden 227 was left under the new found jurisdiction of the Eden Restoration Unit - a private military company. Any remaining life would be terminated as a result, due to their trespass, and naturally this became the chaotic state of Eden as we know it, since the forced evacuation protocols left out A LOT of free stuff for people to "loot". Or better said... Scavenge.

It is notable that The Agency has forward operating bases on the planets, Wave 4 encounters one dubbed "Agency Facility E-6", which appeared to be a pseudo-call center and featured an emergency armory. This could possibly be for the First Wave Agents.

You could further this by claiming the ones in the Castle Echo were also First Wave Agents, due to there being only four in the echo. Four "Hardshells", but that is mostly speculation

Reikgon is an unknown being, not confirmed to be a god, nor a human. The only thing that's known about them is that they want to ensure the demise of EDEN (HE SAID THE THING!!!) for one reason or another, and uses his Shadows for that purpose.

Reikgon's Shadows are creatures beyond human. They are often called "demons", although that's not their true name. They are called Shadows because that's what they are. Absence of light. They hold immense power and are capable of causing havoc and strife wherever they go. They live off of a human host, who also dies when the shadow dies. It's not known whether or not Shadows are scavengers or civilians who used to live on Eden before the collapse. For all we know, we could be killing innocent people.

"Reikgons" "Demons" "Shadows". Reikgon's Shadows are shadow entities. They are mixed into people, and they function weirdly.

The Skinner is somewhat like a skinwalker, it hides within a person. Not like a parasite, it controls the host. When it goes hunting for victims, it will pretend to be a regular human. If the Skinner sees a victim, it approach them, and once they are very close to them, it will reveal its true form while screaming in rage as a method to instill shock into the victim before mauling them with a big spiked arm. It could be speculated that the Skinner has some intelligence as it chooses to hide as a weak scavenger on purpose to make itself look like a target for stronger Scavengers or Agents, basically letting it victims come to it.

The Sickler is extremely aggressive, but sad. In its docile state, it will slowly wonder around, sobbing to itself. But if you dare to get too close to it, or disturb him with loud noises, it will scream and go into a state of rage. The chains that restrain it will break off and it will chase and kill everyone on the map with its immense speed and health. The Sickler also appears to have sadistic urges to mutulate their victim's body, by slashing their necks and spewing their guts. You know the tip: Don't provoke the Sad Boy.

The Hanger has powers that make her victims have suicidal thoughts. Short-term exposure to the Hanger causes mild thoughts of giving up and death, but long-term exposure can be lethal if the victim has a fragile mind. The Hanger reaches out her arm towards the victim, causing the victim's hand to have a mind of its own and attempt to kill its host, this strong urge can be fought back against, letting the victim to get back control of their arm. But when the Hanger encounters an Apostle Agent, she will express strong hate, calling them a "Traitor" or "Faker" and won't use his usual powers of provoking suicidal thoughts. In . , she The Hidden takes an invisible forerand likes to psychologically torment its victims by whispering to them, then slashing their throat when it gets close to them. The Hidden will turn visible for a brief moment whenever it strikes, leaving it briefly exposed. The Hidden is rather weak compared to the other Reikgon, but its invisibility makes up for it. "The novice killer 9000" - Local Vagabond tryhard.

Reikgon is said to be a person, but they could also be a Shadow.

The Leader of the Shadows can "control" the current situation.

Apostles are somehow connected to the Shadows and Reikgon and knows things nobody else does.

The Scavengers are many "tribes" or "large groups" of criminals and bandits who stayed after the evacuation protocols or decided they would jump onto the looting band wagon after they forced all those civilians out. All that free stuff, just waiting to be stolen.. er.. "scavenged".

That's right, people willingly return to Eden 227 for Looting or the lack of law. The "Scavengers" are comprised of corrupt people, criminals or dangerous people - And there are a lot of these groups. Most being completely unnamed.

As of recent times, the third Wave went missing. some say the leader was one of those agents. They're also working alongside two other Agents. Body Guard types. He kind of has his whole band assembled. Don't know what he has planned for that group, though. It's best say we call him "Rogue", especially since he brings us no form of Aid during our greatest time of need.

While most scavengers are part of Yosef's group, not all of them are. They are criminals, and criminals aren't known to follow rules. They fight, and that's how Scavenger Wars happen. The scavenger's nightly raids on the Agents can be explained by lack of order and control within the scavenger groups.

After the Collapse, it's not like they could evacuate everyone. Some people stayed behind. Most of the scavengers are just petty criminals, no combat training, nothing. The Raiders, however, are not petty criminals. They are an organized group of people with advanced training: police officers, firefighters, military personnel, all of that. "Elite scavengers" of sorts, however they do not belong to those lead-pipe wielding scavengers, and are 10 times as deadly as them.

The "Raiders" we encounter in the Wave 4 Agent Scenario (Normal Decaying Winter Gameplay) aren't actually raiders anymore.

Sledge Queen, a former firefighter - and not quite interested in the "leadership" idea - is who we'd call their "leader". Due to her interests and goals not matching up with the Raiders' initiative, she split off with her own group, who are now called the "Former Raiders" - and they are the group encountered in the base game.

Her Sledgehammer is a lighter model than most. The hammer's head was gifted to her by Rayzen from "Survival of the Fittest", even signed by him. While the hammerhead DOES come from Rayzen's "Decimator", the hammer Sledge Queen wields is NOT a decimator. There is no shotgun function. She is called the Sledge Queen. Not the Decimator Queen.

Her "Knuckleboom" augmentation was stolen from an Arbiter by the name of Oliver. Supposedly, Oliver attacked her long time ago, which forced her to kill him in self-defense. She claimed his wrist shotgun after his defeat, which was then surgically augmented onto her arm by an Agent-defector by the name of Hal. Hal is heavily suggested to have been killed by Valorii. It is likely Sledge Queen's Agent 'ZERO' container used to belong to Oliver as well.

Her group compromises of other individuals, people bearing fire axes, riot shields, car doors, firearms. They are likely of Firefighter / Military descent. High risk, High reward. That's what this compound is. You kill Sledge Queen and they'll all go away, letting the players get lots of free loot.

In the game and in-lore, the Raiders are a neutral faction, even to Wave 4. By "Neutral", they will not actively go out of their way to attack the players, only attacking when approached or provoked. We don't know for certain if this logic applies to the main band that the Raiders originally hailed from, or if this is just the group trying to conserve scarce resources.

Sledge Queen nor her Raiders do not have any relationship to The Agency. One interesting detail is that Executioner marks her as "Wanted by Agency" and the AGENT Device classifies her as a "High Value Target". This is likely due to her being a leader of the former raiders, similarly to Yosef, however Yosef is wanted for other reasons due to his ex-affiliation.

It's noted that they are "former raiders", the Raiders are a pre-established faction, Rayzen being one of the first ever mentioned Raiders - while also an unfortunate gameshow contestant. Not much is known about the main band of Raiders or their origins, but it's possible they only accept people who know how to take care of themselves - reflected by this small group of former-raiders.