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.