A world torn
Long after the human race had given up on being renewable, and the planet could hardly handle the rate of growth, tensions began to once again grow over the scarcity of resources. The world became a powder keg, the hint of a spark would ignite the total self destructive force of the Human race. It only took a few months before a spark started what would be the greatest calamity in Human history.
No one could know who fired first but the atomic bombs fell and the surplus population was quelled, a side effect of the warheads was the destruction of much of our technology in the ensuing electro magnetic pulse, written history was by this stage long since lost in our digital age, we were left adrift without the crutch of technology the surviving pockets cut off from one another.
As it transpires nuclear bombs were the least of our problems. Our destructive nature heralded the start of rapture, we had inadvertently invited hell to dinner and we were the main meal. Fortunately we weren’t alone soon after demons began to walk amongst us Angels came to our aid, attempting to rectify the countless failures of men and women alike.
It became harder for our Angelic allies when Demons began to recruit, turning some of our species into Sinners who they gifted with the ability to control their hellish flames, those who were touched and refused to accept the demonic gifts became corrupted, a pale mutated impression of humanity. The corrupted became separate to the ageing process, they mutilated their flesh and became closer to the Demons that defiled them than human beings, but even the Demons that had corrupted them were unable to control them.
After weeks of fighting, the Angelic forces realised that they would be unable to tame the demonic hordes that opposed them and save humanity, in order to prevent a further loss of Human life the Angels Arariel, Samael and Uriel took the 80 million remaining Human beings and held them in Eden where their numbers could grow once again. 127 PE (Post Eventus) Humanity was ejected from Eden and sent back into the wastelands, but how the world had changed in their absence.
There were no longer countries there was simply a hellish landmass similar to a prehistoric earth except where entire cities still stood. Human numbers had once again risen and was now around 4 billion. The sky was now a tortured red and the clouds a dark black in the sky like clots in a pool of deep blood.
We spread, and attempted to re-populate the hellscape that was once our home. The Demons and Corrupted an ever present threat and the Angels an unwilling ally. A few million dispersed to seek out the demonic forces and the benefits that becoming a Sinner might hold them.
Becoming a Sinner slowed their ageing process and fractured their soul allowing them to rape and pillage whilst still keeping some semblance of their former selves, this holds with it other benefits such as the flames of fracture. Coming from a soul that is incomplete, an unnatural flame that is able to wound even angels. Some decided to make their flesh match their souls,such as modifying their flesh with pieces of metal and bone.
Several million others sought out the Angels for aid and guidance, using their Angelic guides to enlighten themselves, to help them build sustainable fortresses across the wasteland from which they could work together. These groups with their Angelic companions became known as Ascendants. The organisation swiftly founded a hierarchy and a new series of technologies and weapons, some specifically designed to obliterate demons.
A few hundred million became corrupted unable to take their new world and simply sub-coming to the madness. The rest became Freelancers, no one knows who coined the phrase but it stuck each pocket of Freelancers doing what they have to to survive. They have millions of bases and camps across the wastelands and move as they see fit.
In a world where Angels and Demons walk amongst us faith isn’t a question anymore, it’s a way of life.
