THEATERÂ OF DEATH
The world wasn’t always like this. We had reached utopia. Society had become so advanced that things like hunger and poverty were just stories of times past. Technology helped us all achieve our maximum potential as a species, but it wasn't meant to last. The stories from our elders tell us that the world had reached a boiling point, quite literally in the year 2069. You see not everyone wants to live in a utopia. Nations who opposed the progress that we were making as a society used that technology against us and started the great war. At first the electrical grids were compromised and then the water supply systems. Soon the systems that managed our food supplies were under attack. The cyber war led to traditional war with countries fighting countries until the chemical and nuclear weapons were launched. Millions were killed and overnight entire countries were wiped off the planet.
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At the same time the planet's temperature was continuing to rise. Despite our best efforts as a society, we could not undo the damage that we had done to the planet. The fever pitch of the great war had only accelerated the inevitable outcome. Those events led to the oceans rising, violent storms and extreme temperatures scattered across the globe. Now coastal cities that once stood tall are now mostly underwater shells ravaged by war and forever changed by nature. The remaining parts of the world are in a constant state of flux between violent lightning storms in the deserts and warmer areas with extreme snowstorms in the colder areas. There are even some parts of the world that have become uninhabitable due to the chemicals and fire that we rained down upon one another. Society as we knew it completely collapsed and millions more died or were killed. Those of us that survived had to learn how to adapt. Resources became scarce and technology has been almost decimated by the state of the planet and by members of The Resurgent Legion who blamed the downfall of the planet on humanity’s greed and lust for technology.
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The Legion, as they are referred to, believes that society needs to return to a simpler time much like the simple farmers of the past who work the land and distance themselves from technology, but they also adopted the military prowess, ruthlessness and strength of the historic Spartans. They believe that any sort of sickness or weakness needs to be cut out for humanity to survive. Any one person who cannot fight and contribute to the Legion is killed and thrown into the great pits. They do not believe in modern medicine and that its use is an affront to nature’s natural order of atrophy and decay. They believe everything and everyone will die and to use medicine to cure illness is to go against that natural order. If a person’s own body cannot overcome an illness or a wound is too great then they deserve to die in order to keep the Legion strong. They also destroy any technology they find, which makes our attempts to rebuild difficult.
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Then there are The Retainers who believe that society needs to learn from its mistakes and work to improve the planet through smarter technology and improved medicines. However, the Legion believes that this path is wrong and will simply lead to further accelerating not only humanity’s demise, but the planet’s as well. For almost two centuries the Retainers have mostly hidden or run from the Legion, but their numbers are dwindling despite the limited technology that they possess. It has become almost impossible to maintain the remaining technology and the once great utopia that clothed, fed an sheltered everyone is in ruins. Resources are becoming scarce at a rapid rate while medicine is in short supply.
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Both groups have decided that the time has come for action. The Legion and the Retainers are plotting to take over each other’s territory. Be it by the tip of a spear, edge of a sword, using technology or perhaps even the environment itself, they will use any means necessary to overtake the other. The past cannot be changed and while it feels like society has been thrust back tens of thousands of years, the future is yet to be written. The Retainers had hoped to write a future of compassion and cooperation. The Legion want to write a future with blood and savagery, but only one group will tell the story of this moment. The time has come for a Theater of Death. Which side will you choose?