In late 1999, the sun went out, and the world was plunged into cold and darkness. People died in horrifying fashion, spontaneously eviscerated in a shower of blood as if being devoured by some intangible presence. In the week that followed, more than a quarter of the human population was consumed, and even more died in the chaos as humanity struggled to fight back against a threat that it could not even make sense of. Eventually the sky overhead finally gave way to light again, but civilization was already hurtling into collapse as a result of the disaster. It would take centuries for humanity to truly rebuild itself again.
Three hundred years later, all across the world, rebuilt cities suddenly found themselves visited by people who had no idea who they were. confused and shunned by the superstitious and paranoid, many of them stuck to themselves, but others tried to reach out and spoke about awaking buried in the earth, of having to claw their way out of the dirt using their own hands to their first breath of air. They spoke about an unspeakable creature that whispered to them in their sleep. They spoke of a hunger in them that would not ease, even as their hosts did their best to feed them.
Days later, the sky went dark once more. And all these strangers suddenly realized their nature and purpose, as they found themselves consumed by a terrible, terrible hunger.
THE BEAST is an intangible presence, a being, a creature, that feeds on humanity. It first found Earth long before humanity began, where it slept for countless years, becoming deeply intertwined with the planet and all life on it, including humans. After finally awaking in 1999, it devoured more than a quarter of the human population in order to satisfy its fierce hunger. It now awakes every few decades to sate itself, feeding on humanity's physical forms, thoughts, emotions and energies.
- The Beast is of extraterrestrial origin, not born on Earth but choosing to settle on the young world. It has grown with the planet and it's lifeforms over time and is deeply intertwined with it, nature and humans alike.
- It feeds off all of humanity, including the intangible and non-physical aspects, thoughts, dreams, emotions, energies. It learned though that while it needed little assistance with consuming their physical forms, that the best way to access those other energies was through other humans, and for that it created the Reapers.
THE HARVEST is what each of the Beast's feasts has come to be called, after humanity began to understand that the Beast was not set on destorying them but merely harvesting them, keeping enough of them alive in order to continue to sustain itself for the future. Harvests are marked by the Earth being plunged into total darkness as the Beast surrounds the entire planet to prevent any interference or escape, blotting out all light and warmth from the sun.
- When harvested, people die suddenly, spontaneously and brutally. Anyone who happens to see it would see someone being torn apart viscerally as if being simultaneously clawed apart and eaten by some invisible creature. There is no body left behind, just blood.
- There have been five Harvests so far. The First Harvest happened in 1999, and the Second was 300 years later, in 23XX. The next were in 25XX, 26XX, and 27XX. They seem to be happening with less time between them, and humanity has noticed. There is nothing they can do about it.
- The First Harvest lasted almost a full two weeks. Since then all following Harvests have lasted between 3-5 days.
- The First Harvest caused all of humanity's then space-faring creations to tear themselves apart and then come crashing down to Earth. It is postulated that the black skies are the Beast itself forming a shield to prevent anything offworld from intefering with its' feeding, and preventing any possible escape.
REAPERS call themselves Chosen. The Chosen Children, the Chosen Dead. After the firstborn were captured and tortured by humans into revealing their nature and connection with the Beast, humanity named them Reapers -- the monsters that aided in the Beast's Harvest. They are incapable of truly dying, any death resulting in them being reabsorbed into the Beast and then being reborn from the Earth after a few days. Their connection to the Beast means they can access the mysterious other plane on which the it resides, and their strange nature manifests in the form of inhuman abilities that they spend their eternal lives learning to master and use to their advantage. Willingly or not, they are the conduit through which the Beast feeds on human energies and emotions, and they must sustain themselves in the same way. They are capable of draining all emotion, thought and energy from a human, leaving them empty shells, leaving the body for the Beast's eventual consumption.
- Because of their purpose all Reapers are on some level empathetic, able to sense the emotions of humans around them, as well as being able to subtly manipulate them. Some Reapers might have more powerful forms of empathy depending on their inborn abilities.
- Just being in proximity of humans means that they are constantly on a very low level absorbing the emotions of those around them. Even in a large crowd this is not enough to actually be filling or sustaining for a Reaper, and they usually need to actively feed on humans to have enough.
- Actively feeding on a human is easier with proximity and contact, and also with emotional openess or trust from the human. How open the Reaper is or how much they trust the human in turn is entirely irrelevant.
- Reapers are born before each harvest, and so come in "waves" or "generations", there have been five. Older reapers are generally more powerful, as they have a stronger connection to the Beast.
- Repeated deaths also tend to make one more powerful as being reabsorbed into the Beast heightens their connection. As Reapers continue to die repeatedly, however, they tend to lose their sense of self and get more and more unhinged. This does take a truly astronomical amount of deaths, given how many times Reapers die on average, but in current times some of the older (or more reckless) Reapers are showing signs.
- While all Reapers can lightly make contact with the Beast on It's plane of existence through their dreams, older, more powerful or specialized Reapers are able to access that plane directly and purposefully. It is typically used as pretty much a Reaper fast travel system, a necessity when dying means you might crawl back to life literally halfway cross the world from home. Reapers without a "clan" (??? words) through which to access this network are generally nomadic. Even more powerful Reapers can even carve a slice of that dimension for themselves, to an extent.
OTHER MISC TERMINOLOGY
- GRIMS are humans who have made it their task to defend against or combat Reapers. There are many organized efforts of Grims, especially in large cities that inevitably have to find some way to cope against their local Reaper "infestations". More vigilante efforts of Grims do exist but their motivations tend to be of a more personal nature, there are for example reputed family lines of Grims who have hunted the same group of Reapers over the generations, or even a single individual, killing them repeatedly.
- ??? WE'LL HAVE NAME FOR IT EVENTUALLY is a recent technological development, initially led by resaerch in Hong Kong and now spreading across major human centres worldwide. One of many, many projects that humans have started in an attempt to find a way to combat the Reapers, a breakthrough finally came not in the form of a weapon but in a medicine. ???, when injected into the bloodstream of a Reaper, severely weakens their connection with the Beast, significantly weakening and disorienting them. Most importantly, anywhere between 2-6 hours after injection, their connection seems to be severed entirely for a very narrow window of time. The effect is temporary and the Reaper recovers after about 12 hours following their initial exposure to the substance. Now scientists worldwide are focusing their efforts on this promising discovery, even as cities mobilize to try and equip their Grims with it as much as possible. Reapers are just beginning to realize the possible threat.
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FURTHER DETAIL
- REAPERS - for more about their nature, their abilities, how they organize themselves, etc
- HUMANS - for more about the current state of humanity and the world
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