Irradiated
South of Merkadome, beyond the Graveyard of the Metal Giants, radiation is so strong that not even Mutards can survive for long in that place. It’s a barren area, where nothing lives… with the exception of the Irradiated.
The Irradiated (who refer to themselves as the True Heirs) are one of the most strange, isolated and scarce factions of the Wasteland. Their origins trace back to the time in which the nations of the world faced each other using weapons with an increasing power. In that race to create new artifacts to wipe out their enemies, they needed bigger laboratories and factories in which to design, build and test new forms of mass destruction. Most of these secret facilities, located in hidden places with strong security measures, were lost to the world in the great purge after the creation of the Megalopoli and the birth of the Wasteland as we know it today. But one of them, known by the codename Dawn, built inside an sphere of a new experimental ultra-resilient material, survived the armageddon inside that hi-tech sealed bubble.
For generations the working staff and their families went on living in the facilities, isolated from the rest of the world and the events that came afterwards, thanks to the automated systems of the military base. Its inhabitants, descendants of an elite of scientists and researchers, convinced themselves that they were the sole survivors of the world and that, one day, they would rule it in their own right. According to those ideas the dwellers of the former base created a new noocratic society in which a council of the wisest men and women issued laws for the community. But with the years, isolation from the exterior and growing corruption, the role of the council became more dictatorial and even acquired a religious aura. Those who already called themselves the True Heirs were convinced to have been chosen by a Supreme Intelligence to begin a new and improved human race, purged from their past errors. A strict hierarchy was established among their members and the social rules became more and more suffocating as their leaders radicalized themselves. But as sophisticated as the technology in the former base was, with the passing years it was becoming harder to contain the leaks in the nuclear reactors that provided energy. Exposed to gradually increasing levels of radiation the dwellers of the place, against all odds, adapted and survived in this new lethal environment as many animal species had done before in nuclear accidents of the past. Their bodies, after being exposed to this Holy Manna, suffered subtle alterations such as skin coloration (which adopted fluorescent hues), hair loss and an abrupt descent in fertility.
For some unfathomable reason, their time has come right now. The Irradiated have decided to leave their haven behind and complete the mission they have been chosen for: convert the world into their image and likeness. As the prophecies had foretold, with the opening of the spherical base shield the New Man hatched from the Egg. The fact that the Wasteland is still populated by other human beings is only a test for their resolve to cleanse the world for the new Rebirth.