Silent world

The vast majority of creatures are more active during the day than at night. While it's warmer during the day, movement is easier because creatures have adapted even better to warmer climates. In contrast, at night, creatures develop better physical conditioning for daytime movement, but in the cold of the night, they are unable to maintain a steady pace. This is why they hide until daybreak, an advantage exploited by the survivors.

Another point is that, for this very reason, the few people involved in the projects and former BioGenx employees are in cold places, such as the northern or southern hemispheres. They maintain a long-range, closed-circuit communication network between the two poles, searching for a way to survive by finding a cure, or perish in the solitude of their own mistakes.

The scientists remaining in the BioGenx factions are mostly old or already dead, making escape from this hell increasingly difficult. Few have had children among colleagues who have been there, and even fewer have descendants, or their descendants continue the work their parents started.

Within hours, the pathogen had reached various parts of the world, staining the sky with strange, never-before-seen colors. No one understood what was happening; they thought it was an environmental issue or simply a natural phenomenon. But no, it was something more, something crueler and more destructive. Something that would change the world as they knew it.

Telecommunications networks began to fail. Power grids began to collapse. Chaos reigned over peace within days. Hospitals overflowed with people seeking help for unidentified symptoms, or conversely, trying to monopolize medical care to leave nothing for others. Pharmacies and stores were looted, crowded places were destroyed, and then the worst...

It began... Or rather, it had already begun...

What they didn't expect...

What no one expected...

First came the animals...

Then the children...

Then the adults...

And then everyone else...

It was gradual. It was unnoticed. It was discreet. But it was swift and brutally deadly.

No one had noticed because of the chaos, but there it was, silently beginning its own chaos. And then... When they realized... It was too late

The world was already broken before they started breaking what was left.

What nobody knew is that what began as a project to boost human life was the start of an epidemic on a stratospheric level.

BioGenx Corp was a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company that created drugs for the medical field and biological weapons for the military. On the biological weapons side, no one knew anything, except for the high-ranking government officials who funded projects to create strains deadly enough to end human lives in a matter of seconds and serums that could be administered to soldiers to maintain their physical condition, enhance their adaptability, and create individuals capable of withstanding high-stress situations.

What should have been an ordinary day turned out to be anything but. There was a data breach at BioGenx's classified facilities. It turns out that someone, or many people, had been investigating projects that the world's largest corporation was conducting. They took with them a handful of samples of the deadly strains and serums developed for the military.

Meanwhile, those who had taken samples—potentially evidence to expose the true nature of this large corporation—were targeted. Higher-ranking officials were not going to tolerate such actions and took drastic measures. They blew up the transport in which the infiltrators were escaping (in this case, a speedboat prepared for escape) and attempted to erase all traces of the incident. What they didn't know was that by blowing up the speedboat, they caused both the strain and the serum to react upon mixing, and the fire completed the development of a form that could be described as immortal and highly adaptable to any environmental, biological, and structural scenario.

Between the smoke from the fire and the evaporation of the water, they ended up carrying what would now be the virus through the air.

The Iron Bastion
Their obsession with eradicating mutation has transformed them into a ruthless military machine. They have reactivated old underground factories, and their elite soldiers patrol in rudimentary, heavy power armor fueled by unstable energy cells. They use chemical flamethrowers and high-caliber weaponry to secure their perimeters. For them, genetic purity is law; anyone exhibiting even the slightest physical alteration, not even skin discoloration from radiation, is considered a monster and purged on the spot.

The Children of the New Eden
What began as a nature cult has evolved into biological fanaticism. They have learned to distill serums from mutated flora and fauna to force controlled evolutions in their own bodies. Their leaders possess limbs covered in invulnerable bark, bony claws, or venomous glands, which they consider "divine blessings." Their camps are hidden in the heart of the Crystal Forests, protected by giant carnivorous plants that passively respond to the pheromones secreted by the cultists themselves.

The Ash Syndicate (The Evolved Wanderers)
The original nomads united to monopolize trade routes, forming a deadly network of mercenaries and smugglers. They travel in rolling fortresses, gigantic vehicles of scrap metal welded together and powered by steam and biogas engines. They judge neither by ideology nor genetic purity; their only religion is utility. If you can fight, repair an engine, or track beasts in the fog, you have a place with them. They exact exorbitant tolls in bullets or purified water from any faction wishing to cross their territories, and they don't hesitate to abandon the wounded in the arena if they slow the advance of their convoys.

In the absence of governments, the remaining humanity grouped together guided by their ideologies and the skills of their members:

The Iron Bastion: A paramilitary faction composed of former engineers and soldiers. Their ideology dictates that nature is the enemy to be vanquished. They survive by building heavily armed fortresses and purging any mutation that approaches their walls with fire.

The Children of New Eden: A mystical and naturalist group that believes the tragedy was a necessary reset. They survive thanks to their biological knowledge; they have learned to purify water from acid rain and cultivate the new mutated flora to create medicines and food, living in harmony with the dangers of their environment.

The Wanderers: Pragmatic nomads with no fixed ideology beyond trade and daily survival. They know the safe routes between settlements, act as mercenaries or messengers, and base their hierarchy solely on who possesses the best combat and tracking skills.

The animals that survived the tragedy mutated rapidly to adapt to the toxic environment. Among the most feared beasts are the Ash Stalkers, gigantic, hairless felines with skin as hard as asphalt and the ability to camouflage themselves almost completely in the urban ruins.

Other examples would be:

Rust Hunters: They rule the stormy skies. These are scavenging birds whose plumage has fused with the metallic particles suspended in the air, giving them the appearance of faded, razor-sharp steel. They use the conductivity of their wings to absorb the energy of lightning during thunderstorms and release it in devastating dives against their prey. Their squawk sounds like two metal plates scraping violently, a deadly warning from above.

Tar Maws: Amphibious predators that inhabit flooded ruins and acid swamps. They have completely lost their eyes, developing instead a hypersensitive echolocation system based on the vibrations of corrosive water. Their thick skin secretes a dark, sticky substance that neutralizes the acid around them, allowing them to ambush those who approach in search of resources. When they catch their prey, they drag it to the dense, dark bottom in absolute silence.

Spore Buzzers: Mutated insects the size of a human forearm that travel in incredibly dense swarms. They don't attack with stingers, but instead release a cloud of hallucinogenic spores when threatened or hunting. Inhaling their dust disorients travelers, forcing them to see illusions of safe oases or imminent rescues. These visions lure victims directly into the swarm's subterranean tunnels, where they are paralyzed to serve as living incubators.

Other infected creatures can also be found, but they are mostly animals with deformities and a grotesque appearance. Just like the people who became infected.

The planet is unrecognizable. There are areas known as the Crystal Forests, where the trees have calcified into sharp, spiky structures that reflect light blindingly. The climate is extremely unstable; survivors must contend with corrosive rains capable of melting cheap metal and dense fogs that cause hallucinations. Storms are bizarre in appearance, with lightning that seems more like an arachnid among the clouds than something created by nature itself. Occasionally, what should normally last a day can stretch to almost two and a half days, resulting in unbearably hot weather. And what should last a night repeats the same pattern, lasting longer than it should, creating a very cold and uninhabitable environment. Essentially, the planet rotates more slowly on its axis.

There are spaces that still maintain a vibrant, verdant appearance. Places that adapted to the climate and also mutated with the strain. Plants that were once small are now ten times larger. And plants that were difficult to keep alive are now more vibrant and have a more primitive appearance, like those from a time before humanity.

There are also plants that can be found in certain parts of the world that are good at surviving in what is now called home.

Not only have living beings on the planet mutated, but the planet itself has also mutated in some way, adapting to its new conditions.

No one knows exactly what triggered the collapse four decades ago, but the result was the release of a latent toxin in the Earth's crust that altered the DNA of almost every living thing. Telecommunications and the global power grid were fried within the first 24 hours, isolating the few people who managed to survive the initial die-off.