Children of the Plague
Campaign Background
The following information is designed to introduce players to the events that precede the campaign time-line. Players should read all of this background, and then as part of their character generation (with a referee) select those elements their character will be aware of via their relevant race’s oral, pictorial, digital or written histories. Please be aware that this background is not meant to be scientifically accurate, just plausible and interesting.
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​The Old Time & The Sunstorm​
The beginning of the end started in early 2035 (on the 8th of January) with the Sun at its Solar Maximum. This was the period during the 11 to 12 year solar cycle when the Sun was at its most active and turbulent.
Scientists began to detect an unusually large and rapidly growing Sun Spot. From preliminary analysis they concluded that they should expect Solar Flares of very high intensity, possibly x20 and above, with the possibility of another x28 flare similar to the exceptional Solar events of November 4th 2003.
All governments were informed and warned of potential communications disruption and the crew of the second International Space Station (ISS2) were dispatched a Special Equipment Payload (SEP) including an advanced Solar Monitoring Module (SMM).
Shortly after the arrival of the SEP and before the SMM was fully operational, multiple new observations came in revising the expected magnitude of any potential Solar Flare. Observatories across the globe simultaneously recorded a massive increase in the size and rotational speed of the Sun Spot. It was clearly being driven by a huge shift in the Sun's massive geomagnetic field.
These new reports once analysed revealed that the potential magnitude of the expected Solar Flare could be at x100+, effectively off the X scale. The SMM was rushed into operation and the crew of the ISS2 were able to verify and corroborate these initial reports. The date was March 3rd 2035, the date that the countdown to the Apocalypse began. The apocalypse had a name and it was the “Sunstorm”.
Scientists began their calculations and predicted that the Sun Spot would reach catastrophic eruption in 289 hours from the last set of observations. Unfortunately it took them 38 hours to crunch the numbers and cross check the results with the crew of the ISS2. So with 251 hours to spare (10 and a half days) it was confirmed that the Earth was about to experience the most significant and powerful Solar System event since the initial formation of our Sun.
Governments were fully aware of the situation, but realised they could do little. Standard warnings were given but the magnitude of the Sunstorm was not communicated. Power and transportation systems were put onto contingency plans, but there was no attempt to initiate a general evacuation of the most at-risk populated regions. The politically connected, the wealthy and the influential all somehow heard of the impending apocalypse and began their own contingency planning.​

The Sky Fire and the Wind of Silence​
Approximately 250 hours later and for just a few fleeting seconds, a gigantic Solar eruption was detected by visual and radio observatories in Asia, China and Australia. Then moments later the sky “caught fire” with an intense spectrum of colour. But this was no tourist’s sightseeing aurora; this was raw cosmic fire the likes of which Humanity had never seen. It lasted mere seconds, but it was enough.
Then… everything went dead… everything went quiet… everything went off-line.
It was caused by a massive x-ray Electro-Magnetic Pulse (EMP) that was generated by the eruption of the Solar Flare. It travelled at the speed of light and raced ahead of the contents of the flare itself. Within 8 seconds of the eruption it had slammed straight into the Earth, ionizing the upper atmosphere and causing a massive EMP “tsunami” that swept across the entire surface of the Earth.
This EMP “tsunami” deactivated or destroyed virtually all electrical technology in particular computers, networks and digital electronic devices. Power stations and power distribution grids went off-line (and worse). Factories, shops, homes, roads, railways, airports - the entire global infrastructure in fact, first ground to a halt and then almost immediately collapsed in on itself.​

The Fall Out and The Chaos​
There was a global pause, but this lasted for no more than 5 or 6 hours. Then… panic, looting, paranoia, violence, despair. With technology stripped away from them humanity reverted quickly to unreasoning, animalistic instinct. Within 2 days the Fall Out from the Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) arrived. The CME was the plume of slower moving radioactive Solar matter, the part of the Solar Flare that had detached from the Sun. The massive CME rained down onto the surface of the Earth unleashing a massive dose of deadly radiation.
Within 5 days radiation sickness killed tens of millions. Within 5 weeks it killed hundreds of millions. Within 5 months it killed billions. And during this period there was chaos - dark sadistic predation and insane senseless violence. “Hell on Earth” had truly arrived, and the future would know these times only as “The Chaos”.​

The Plague​
The “human” race might have survived the Chaos. It might even have recovered from the brink of disaster, if it had not been for the Plague.
The Plague began about 9 months after the Chaos began. Some say it escaped from a research establishment after its containment systems had failed (or were destroyed). Some say it was a mutation created by the Fall Out. Some even say it was deliberately released by the last fragment of a Government to wipe out the contaminated survivors and stop the Chaos, - an attempt to “wipe the slate clean” you could say.
Regardless of its origins any “contest” between the Chaos and the Plague was short lived. Within just 6 months the Plague did indeed “wipe the slate clean”. Although radiation killed about 5 billion of Earth’s 10 billion population (approximately 50%), the Plague (not to be outdone) killed approximately 99.997% of the remainder. After the Plague had “burnt itself out” all that remained on Earth were 12 million people.
Well, not really people exactly.​
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The Rebirth​
The Plague not only killed billions of “humans” but had a profound effect on all the survivors it left behind. These survivors separated into two opposing populations – “the Raged” and “the Children” (of The Plague). For the Raged it did little or nothing but fuel their anger and hatred and leave them as mindless, violent animals. For the Children it purged their radiation poisoning, stabilised their mutations and heralded a new genetic era.
Some even say The Plague showed awareness and intelligence. They say the Plague recognised the radiation poisoning and its genetic side-effects as a threat to its “purpose” and therefore simply eradicated it. If this theory is true then it poses a dilemma, such as why would the Plague kill almost everyone poisoned by radiation, yet fail to kill those that were mutated the worst? Why spare the most violent, hateful, genetically and psychologically scarred monsters to walk the Earth? Why not put an end to those that hunger for a return to the Chaos, those who would become the Raged?
However, few doubt that the Plague had a hand in the creation of the Children. It saved them from death, opened their minds to the world around them (unlocking hidden talents) and changed them physically. Among these gifts were an exceptionally hastened metabolism and reproductive cycle. Those that “believe” say the Plague somehow shaped the races for a reason, by design rather than random chance.
Regardless of how and why it happened, the fact is that four distinct races were born– Noms, Fey, Arcs and Vors. Although very different, they all recognise themselves as the Children of the Plague. They may no longer be human, but they will always share a genetic ancestry with the previous human race, and be blessed with a common tongue.​
