About the Wastelands
The Desolations
Creating a Wastelands Character

About the Wastelands
Like a vast ocean of corrupt nature, The Wastelands are both a boundary and a means of egress.

To Cyberia, they are an impenetrable waste of corrupted shadow, the detritus of the old Wars of Pattern & Chaos that laid waste to an entire cosmos.

Burnt-out, shattered, forlorn and hissing with the sizzling aftermath of the death of Order and Chaos, they are a no-man's land inhabited only by the insane, the criminal, and the dying.

From the harsh wilds come the cannibal road gangs who prey on the edges of the shadows of Cyberia, and occasionally make huge forays into the heart of the techno-industrial sprawls that compose it.

Twisted by the wild and corrosive energies of the exposed shadows, the inhabitants are as monstrous as
the fables and rumours make them out to be ... apparantly faced with the prospects of a short, brutish life amid their fellow degenerates.

But beyond ... beyond, lie the Enclaves...small bastions of sanity and peace amid the thuggish reality of the Wastelands, beyond the reach of the megacorps and the police states of Cyberia ... indeed, virtually unknown to those who reside there.

Established around the crystalline Plantaxy, the Enclaves are forbidden to the Wastelanders, who regard them as holy places, the residence of gods who are to be feared and respected ... Wastelanders do not tell the
men of Cyberia of the Enclaves, what little they know. Many Wastelanders believe the Enclaves to be a place of Paradise and reward for when they die.

As to Cyberia, they see those of that place as weak and easy prey - they cannot survive the harsh desolation of the immeasurable wilds except with the use of foul artificial tools which make them crippled and reliant upon their blessed cybersurgeons.

The Wastelanders are the descendants of the old shadows, mixed with a taint of the old Blood, of Amber and Chaos ... most are tough, but fragile, living only a short time before succumbing to an early death by murder, starvation or cancerous boils. No one ever lives to an 'old age'.

Yet, there are some among the Wastelanders who have true Power, who can summon the Storms to tear open the veil of shadow and lead gangs of raiders upon their neighbours and the Cyberians, or to make the vital and
anticipated pilgrimages to the Enclaves to visit the Blessed Ones who live there and offer their dead for a
turn in paradise.

Yes, those of true Power are the natural leaders, and when they come, there is no mistake of their greater being ... more vital, unsickened by the ambient corruption of the Wastes, burning with inner power, able to perform feats of strength that make all stand in awe...

Called Storm Lords, they appear rarely, but when they do appear, they leave their mark.

(Players are Storm Lords, those who trace Amber/Chaos blood amid their shadow genes).

The Desolations
The realms are divided into four zones:

The Desolation of Dust: shadows in which water is rare, and the lands are arid, often filled with blinding sandstorms, forlorn stone promontories and shifting dunes. This Desolation is closest to Cyberia, and is the one Cyberians are familiar with. They are unaware that other Desolations exist beyond it ... exiled Cyberian criminals get dumped here, usually to be eaten by the Cannibal Gangs.

Desolation of Acid: These shadows lie after the Desolation of Dust and tend to be filled with pitted lands overcast by torrents of acid rain, corrosive hail and glacial expanses of toxic ice.

Desolation of Radiation: These shadows are the most dangerous of all, and are third in line from Cyberia. The Glow lights up the evening skyline, as residual radiation poisons each shadow, giving way to riotous mutations .. .either creating vast sterile areas or thick jungles of savage and unstable oddities.

Desolation of Rust: these shadows are furthest from Cyberia and wash up against the Enclaves themselves...they are the shadows which are home to the remnants of fallen empires and civilizations ... overgrown ruins, ancient war machines rusting into piles of flakes, roads that lie exposed along the spines of wind-swept mountains .... it's the least dangerous of the Desolations (if you don't count the monstrous inhabitants), but also the least inhabited ... due to the proximity of the Enclaves, which the Wastelanders fear.

Technology: Imagine Mad Max with mutants. Motorcycles, homemade shotguns, crossbows, windwheel power, etc. Much technology is stolen (or illicitly purchased) from Cyberia. Few things come from the Enclaves that the Wastelands can understand or use.

You should consider a Wastelander if you like swinging a sword and being the 'wild barbarian type' .. think Zardoz, Mad Max, etc.

Wastelanders can go to Cyberia, and to the Enclaves to RP too, they are not confined to just the Wastelands.

To create a Wastelander character, go here.