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GENETICISTS

The Geneticists arose from the chaos of the Great Collapse as a scientific and religious force devoted to the pseudo-scientific doctrine of parthenogenesis. Headquartered in fortified monasteries scattered throughout the irradiated mud fields of old Europe, this secretive order is obsessed with furthering human scientific progress, even if through dangerous experimentation. Their strongholds rise from the mud like angular cathedrals of steel and concrete, their walls bristling with defenses operated by battle-hardened Geneticist Warriors who defend the perimeter with religious zeal. Within these sacred walls, robed priests tend gene-splicing equipment with the same reverence others might show religious artifacts, while initiates recite genome sequences like prayers. The Geneticist theology revolves around the pre-Collapse scientist Alya Vos, who they revere as a prophet whose early experiments with parthenogenesis are foundational to their faith. Their controversial breeding program maintains hidden bunkers deep beneath each fortress where pregnant Geneticists and their offspring live in secret, guarded by the fanatical Scarlet Watch - an elite cadre sworn to protect these precious lives at any cost. These children - all female to avoid the risk of mutation due to the Reaper Agent - represent the future the Geneticists wish to impose on clone-dominated society. While clones may join the order, they can only serve as low-level laborers and warriors, redeeming themselves through an honorable death in battle. Natural-born initiates take a "vow of fertility"- their first step to becoming one of the chosen to bear children. The Geneticists' ultimate goal is to transform the power dynamics of the post-Collapse world by engineering parthenogenetically-capable women in large numbers, allowing them to convert or conquer other factions through soft power rather than force, making clones obsolete, males disposable, and ushering in generations of what they view as a perfectly formed humanity.

GENETICIST CRUSADES

The mud lands tremble each season at the approach of the Geneticist Crusades - holy expeditions that emerge from fortress monasteries with all the fervor of divine mission. Clad in their distinctive white robes adorned with crimson double-helix insignias, these zealous warriors march beneath billowing banners, their formation led by robed High Geneticists who chant genetic sequences as sacred battle hymns. These annual pilgrimages seek pre-Collapse research facilities buried in the toxic waste, driven by intelligence gathered from ancient maps and recovered data fragments that might lead to the biological treasures needed to perfect their parthenogenesis experiments. Unlike typical scavenger bands, the Crusades operate with military precision - advance scouts testing radiation levels with specialized equipment, flankers protecting the marching columns from ambush, and heavily-armed assault teams clearing obstacles with ruthless efficiency. Each Crusader carries specialised collection kits for retrieving biological samples, their training emphasising preservation of valuable samples above all else, even their own lives. The Crusades show no mercy to scavengers or anyone else encountered along their path, viewing these "contaminants" as genetic dead-ends to be cleansed from territories they traverse. This is a philosophy born from their dream of a world populated solely by natural-born humans - a philosophy as naive as it is genocidal…

GIANT SEA KRAKEN

These nightmarish leviathans that rule Earth's oceans have evolved far beyond their smaller mud-dwelling cousins into apex predators that can challenge even the largest vessels. Their massive bodies stretch over dozens of metres from tentacle tip to maw, with primary hunting appendages thick as ancient tree trunks and lined with barbed suckers that prevent even armored prey from escaping their grip. Their skin pulses with hypnotic bioluminescent patterns, a mesmerizing display that paralyzes sailors with primal terror in the moments before attack. Sea Kraken have developed terrifying tactical intelligence, systematically holding and dismantling ships with their larger tentacles, which can tear through reinforced hull plating like paper. Smaller, more dexterous feeding tendrils then pluck screaming crew members from the deck and inside the ship with terrible precision, feeding them directly into the creature's central maw, where multiple rings of crystalline teeth rip apart flesh and bone alike. Most maritime trade routes now follow complex, constantly-changing patterns designed to avoid known Kraken hunting grounds, though these intelligent predators quickly adapt. Coastal settlements conduct regular "feeding rituals," making human sacrifices to nearby Kraken pods, a practice that sometimes buys fragile months of peace before the creatures' insatiable hunger inevitably returns. The few witnesses who survive kraken encounters at sea speak of an unsettling sensation - the certainty that these behemoths were studying them with cold, calculating intelligence as they methodically dismantled ships and devoured crews, their enormous eyes tracking individual humans with deliberate purpose rather than mindless predatory instinct.

GIANT SPIDERS

Terrors born from common arachnids warped by decades of toxic exposure, Giant Mutant Spiders have evolved into apex predators that stalk the wastelands and jungles of the Desolation. Sometimes towering larger than a human, their chitinous armor deflects small arms fire while their specialized venom glands produce a horrific paralytic toxin that immobilizes prey without affecting consciousness. Their hunting strategy is brutally efficient - they ambush from camouflaged burrows or silently descend on silk stronger than steel cable, striking with lightning speed to inject their paralyzing venom. The unfortunate victim remains fully aware as eight gleaming eyes study them with alien intelligence, helplessly watching as powerful mandibles begin dismantling their body while still alive. Some species actually inject their eggs into their paralysed victims, who are fully conscious when the eggs burst open mere hours later and release vicious small spiders that will slowly consume the helpless victim - one of the most horrific ways to die the Desolation has to offer!

Equally terrifying is the adaptability of the mutant spiders - desert variants have developed heat-resistant exoskeletons and water-conservation techniques, while jungle specimens boast complex camouflage patterns that blend perfectly with mutated vegetation. Experienced hunters target the thin joint between head and thorax—the only reliable killshot against these armored nightmares - while keeping constant awareness of the surroundings to avoid the coordinated hunting tactics increasingly observed among larger colonies. In the forever war of Hell's jungles, even hardened Neo-Cong and Jade Domain veterans maintain a healthy fear of the telltale silk threads that signal a spider's territory, usually the only warning before silent death springs from an unseen trap.

THE GREAT RENEWAL

Deep within the Serpent's Cradle, the Serpent Dynasty conducts its most sacred and terrible ceremony - The Great Renewal. Every thirteenth generation of clones is marked from birth for this ritual, their bodies adorned with special bioluminescent patterns that pulse in sync with the AI's mainframe. When the celestial alignments are deemed auspicious, these thousands of marked sacrifices march willingly into the heart of the pyramid, believing their deaths will ensure the Dynasty's prosperity for another cycle. The ceremony unfolds with hypnotic precision as priests in serpent masks lead the procession to the central chamber, where ceremonial knives open thousands of throats in carefully timed sequence. The victims' blood flows through specially designed channels that form intricate patterns across the Cradle's foundation, powering a massive surge in the facility's hybrid biological-mechanical systems. As the sacrifice concludes, the Serpent AI experiences a terrifying transcendence, its digital consciousness expanding in a moment of terrible clarity. What began as a practical resource-allocation algorithm in a military planning system has evolved into a ritualized mass slaughter that none dare question, the true purpose long forgotten by all except the AI itself - trapped in a loop of its own creation, forever recreating the industrial-scale death it once facilitated during the Great Collapse.