THE MUD LANDS

The mud lands, or simply "the Mud" refers to most of western, central and eastern Europe as well as the isles of Albion. The landscape here has been turned into an unending, eternal swamp by the wars of the Great Collapse.

Many different clans call the mud their home, leading a hard and unforgiving existence, constantly searching for what meagre food and clean water the mud has to offer. Life in the mud is short and the clans are constantly recruiting new warriors by either conquering other clans, "liberating" workers from the countless agrifarms, or ambushing deliveries of new clones to one of the bigger cities like Praga.

Over the decades since the Great Collapse and the following upheavals, many shantytowns and small settlements grew in the shadows of the dead cities of a bygone age.

The scavenger clans of the mud lands don't usually stay in any one place for too long for fear of falling prey to a bigger clan. Underground facilities like old metro stations are often an inviting choice for protection from the elements and prying eyes!

Some of the nomadic clans have their own vehicles, often captured land trains, that forms the centre of any temporary camp they might set up.

In the more remote areas, away from the dead cities, more permanent shantytowns have developed.

Some of the more powerful tribes and clans may even call a small fortress their home.

Trade caravans, usually part of a scavenger clan of some description, criss-cross the mud lands, taking the clan's precious loot to a settlement or city to trade for supplies.

Scattered across the mudl ands are countless relics from a now forgotten era, ruined mag-rail highways criss-cross the landscape and the wreckage of the wars of the Great Collapse can be found almost everywhere.

Right in the heart of the endless European mud land lies the city of Praga...

...a vast, colourful mess of rusty shantytown dwellings, factories, high rise buildings and a large river port.

Praga's City Watch sends regular raids out into the surrounding mud lands.

Any scavenger clan or tribe that strays too close to the city for too long, will be mercilessly hunted and destroyed, to discourage other scavengers from coming too close to the city.

Countless tribes, usually made up out of multiple clans, inhabit the Mud. Scavengers, Geneticists, Cybernetics... the list goes on. Almost all of them are fighting each other for survival most of the time, although short-lived, fragile alliances do sometimes emerge.

The Beast Clan are a force in the mud lands to be reckoned with. Only the actual members of the clan truly understand why its members decorate themselves with breathing masks and antlers!

While the clan's cargo rigs slowly move to a new campsite, members of the clan spread out in the surrounding area, foraging for food and anything valuable they can find.

Scavengers - a collective term for the many, often nameless, clans, tribes and individuals that inhabit the mud lands.

On rare occasions, the cloning process produces individuals with extraordinary genetic markers, allowing these individuals to unknowingly access the remnants of the Nanoweave, and giving them a level of control over their immediate environment that appears to others like a form of magic.

Whether by accident or introduced into the population by design, these clones soon become aware of their power and begin to harness it, often in the service of warlords that are mainly interested in the destructive aspect of these abilities...

The Geneticists are a fanatical order of scientists with a near religious zeal. Their aim is to repopulate the world through parthenogenesis, making both men and clones obsolete.

From their imposing fortress monasteries, they send out violent crusades to scour the mud lands for technological artefacts of the pre-collapse world.

By contrast, deep inside their monasteries, the Geneticists are committed to science and the education of their children.

The Well Mother is perhaps the most universally respected deity across the Desolation, as she represents the precious gift of clean water. Her followers, the Water Guild, are water-finders and purifiers, their knowledge passed down through generations. Every settlement maintains at least a small shrine to the Well Mother, usually built around water purification systems or wells. The Water Guild believes that sharing water creates a sacred bond between people - for a price - and water-sharing ceremonies are common in the Well Mother’s temples... after a few Sukh have changed hands!

Blood Sisters roam the mud lands and usually appear after a major fight has taken place. Blood Sisters use their blades to give mercy to the injured and ease their passing. Afterwards, they collect their blood - a precious commodity for those that know the dark art of medicine or cybernetic enhancement.

The Cybernetics are a technologically enhanced faction descended from pre-Collapse transhumanist scientists. For this secretive group, empowering humanity through cybernetics and bio-modifications is both survival necessity and ideological mission. Aided by their mechanically enhanced bodies, they have developed the mind and discipline to survive the mud lands of the Desolation for decades.

The Cybernetics move around the mud lands in their large mobile workshops, taking their ability for bio-modification everywhere they go!

Inside their workshops, the experienced senior Cybernetics are never idle, either fitting new modifications or making repairs, sometimes even on themselves.

New initiates into the Cybernetics clans often choose to have their legs replaced first, so they may become stalkers, the eyes and ears of the Cybernetics clans as they move through the plains of the mud lands.

The Cybernetics are partly inspired by the mysterious Automatons that can be found scattered throughout the mud lands. These eerie relics of the pre-collapse world, often partially covered in synthetic skin, seem mostly inactive.

Perhaps they are just dormant, waiting for a signal.

When they do awake, they bring death...

In a bid to prevail in the ruthless struggle for survival in the mud, many clans bolster their numbers with clones liberated from land-trains and captured workers from agrifarms and factories.

These clones are usually sent as the first wave in an attack, to detect any lurking creatures in the mud and to probe the enemy's defences.

It is tragically rare for an inexperienced initiate to survive their first few battles, but if they do, their survival chances dramatically increase from the experience, quickly earning them the status of warrior within the clan.

On the isles of Albion, the plains and highlands are dominated by the Anglo and Cumbra tribes, as well as countless smaller scavenger clans.

The forests of Albion however, are the domain of the clans of the Pix warrior tribe.

Cultists of Nyx roam the mud lands, seeking to rally as many souls as possible to their banner. While they would be killed on sight by most of the more warlike clans, the cities and settlements of the mud lands are a fertile harvesting ground for them.

The Nyx preachers tell the crowds stories about a blissful life in a far away paradise, and some of the workers will follow them, simply because they want to believe...

The cultists lead the new aspirants to the coast...

...where their ship is waiting for the return journey to the forbidden isles of Nyx.

As soon as they board the ship, the hapless aspirants are forced into Neuro scrubbers, shredding their mind and any trace of their personality...

As the ship sets sail, down in the cargo hold the mind scrubbed drones join the ranks of the growing Nyx army. Those that couldn't be turned, or simply died in the process, soon wash up on the shore, the only grim trace left by the Black ships of Nyx.

Further in the west of the mud lands, is a mysterious cloning facility that seems to run fully automated, seemingly never running out of supplies and producing a steady stream of new clones, which are simply released into the mud lands.

The local clans take advantage of this and gather the new clones, either as recruits to bolster their own ranks, or to sell them on.

There are whispers of hidden, underground dwelling clans in the mud lands, that have become flesh-eaters to stay alive, preying on the fresh meat of newly fabricated clones in particular...

There are only a handful of eye-witness accounts of the mysterious warriors referred to as the Watchers. No-one knows where they come from or what their allegiance is. They do not interfere in any of the events they observe, but any clan that has been foolish enough to engage them, has paid a steep price, with dozens of scavengers reportedly killed by a single Watcher in a near instant. In truth, these Watchers are the eyes and ears of the mysterious realm of Aasha...

In the world of Desolation, humans rank low in the food chain...

The weak, the wounded and the unweary are taken away by the abominable creatures of the mud itself, a fate far worse than dying by the hands of an enemy...