[center][h1]Alt-Earth 2020AD: To Find a Haven in Hell[/h1][/center]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/avtZZcf.jpg[/img]

[center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gT6AnrDwew&list=PL0duo2z6kkamafQFVA5NkV7me8ZjTwlEY]– Inspirational Music –[/url][/center]

[color=gainsboro][i]“Light and darkness cannot occupy the same space at the same time.
Now nature makes us decide which one will occupy Earth.”

A space storm hit the Earth on 13th of September 2012. It raged for three days and three nights. Electricity died and the whole digital world with it. Connections between the American continents and Europe were lost as well as connections with all the islands of the oceans and far away places in distant countries. Satellites fell from the skies with everything else that was in the air. All of humanity was thrown back to the age before electricity.

The Earth wailed and screamed that time. It was in pain. It trembled from core to the crust destroying many great cities. Valleys turned into hills and mountains were leveled to fields. Many islands were swallowed and new ones emerged from beneath the sea.

Since then Earth has been sick. It is alive, just barely. It stays alive with the light in the hearts of men, women and children.

The storm and the tumult killed most of us. Those that did not die in the storm, soon died to their injuries, lack of nutrition and shelter. Those of us who stayed alive experienced strong headaches and physical pain for days, some even weeks after the storm.

Soon reports of strange anomalies and supernatural accidents started to travel among the survivors. We heard of poltergeists, possessions and some throwing a burst of destructive energy of some kind in their anger killing someone by accident. We also heard of pillars of light, glowing shields that saved someone from being crushed under a building that was falling apart. We heard of miracles.

We learned that the storm had amplified our emotions and deepest desires into a usable and visible energy that could destroy and build up, damage and protect.

In the world we lived in, we faced a new danger – the power of our emotions, unthoughtful reactions and desires. Those who were keen to be negative and live a life of questionable morals began to use their newly found powers for their own benefit. They soon found out that life began to fade from the place where they lived. Earth began to wither, lose it's colors and eventually it would die.

Earth grew stronger where there was light. It could be even restored to its former glory. These places became the target of the darkmen – or parasites as some called them. The darkness within them began to consume them. They would attack, destroy, plunder, kill. We were forced to fight.

That is how this war began. Not a war of faith or flag, neither a war to conquer nor to liberate. This war is about keeping Earth alive.

[right]– Journal entry by an unknown author, 29th of July 2015[/right][/i][/color]
[hider=Backstory]
Through the beginning of the 21st century, the Sun had grown increasingly restless at an extremely rapid pace. NASA, NOAA and other officials kept recording more and more solar flares and their side effects. None of them were of any concern to the public health or to the matters of traverse and communication. So, much of the public and official discourse dismissed the concerns of the minorities as fear mongering, saying that this is a passing phenomena.

September 13th 2012, Earth was hit by the most violent geomagnetic storm mankind had ever witnessed. The storm did not only disrupt but destroyed all communication networks - radio, satellite, internet, everything was put to an end and the Earth fell silent. All electronic devices died, which caused planes to fall, ships lose their way, innumerable traffic accidents all across the globe.

The massive amount of radiation that swept the planet's surface with unprecedented brutality caused severe damages to humanity itself also. The greatest killer was mutations that varied from instant to extremely rapid. People died where they stood or by the end of the week, more or less deformed close to being unrecognizable. Those who did not die in the various accidents or from the mutations suffered all kinds of psychological and physiological reactions that would eventually destroy them like lethal headaches, complete loss of sleep, sudden mood changes and extremely violent behavior to name a few.

Through the tumult and destruction, by some miracle, there were few who survived. Some were driven to a state of becoming mere beasts, husks, withered shadows of their former humanity. Then there were the lucky ones, blessed or what ever you want to call them. Their genetic build was somehow immune or hyper resistant to the mutations that most suffered, protecting them from deformations and other psychological and physiological damage that was lethal to so many others.

But the trauma unlocked something in them. After they had recovered enough to function, many began to manifest abilities to control light or darkness. As an increasing number uncovered these abilities they learned that what an individual could control depended on his or her morals, karma, alignment, whichever name you wish to give to it.

As men often have it, this new power divided the survivors. Those who harbored hate, jealousy, greed, unjust control, more power, you name it used their powers to get what they considered was rightfully theirs. Meanwhile those who cared, wanted peace and worked to restore the good that was lost became protectors and defenders of the weak. The growing conflict and unrest forced the peace-seeking population to flee and seek solace while the other side became hunters, thieves and pillagers.
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[hider=Setting]
This is the world you live in now: an alternative Earth in 2020, a world of clans and tribes, nomads and settlers – an age of survival and struggle.

8 years after the cataclysmic geomagnetic storm, humanity has begun to form into three groups: the people who choose light, the people who choose darkness and separatist tribes, clans who have gone their own ways and keep mostly to themselves, not taking sides and often resorting to a nomadic, migratory scavenger lifestyle.

The world is in ruins, mostly empty of human life.

Population in 2012: 7 125 828 059
Population in 2020: 12 313 430

The main character (one of you) is on their way to reach a settlement of Light on Atlantic Beach in Jacksonville, of which they have received a hint from a scavenger they encountered in what used to be Atlanta. His info also was based on a rumour, but since they don’t have a heading, it is as good a goal as any.
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[hider=Goal]
[list]
[*]To reach a supposed major settlement of Light on Atlantic Beach in Jacksonville you have found out about.
[*]To survive the journey in the wasteland.[/list]
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[hider=Lore Questions]
[b]Animals:[/b] Animals exist and the ones that manage to find food, thrive. Animals can be seen as they are and also slightly mutated, not beyond recognition but enough to make them nightmarish to look at. The mutations heighten their urges. Aggressive hunters become more aggressive and docile beings become even more docile.
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[hr][h3]Practical Things[/h3][list]
[*]I will play environment/NPCs and trigger events guiding the players along the journey.
[*]The role-play will play out in scenes or scenarios instead of one constant continuous flow.
[*]Expecting 3 good paragraphs of writing per turn. I consider one paragraph as 3 well thought out, expanded and phat sentences.
[*]The play can start already with one person (the main character), more can tag along on the way.
[*]Characters enter the story by application.[/list]
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