The year is 2074. The Evermist Corporation has bought out the world?s governments, and commands every country on the planet. The sun never shines through the cloud of smog which billows in the sky, and the people of the world must wear masks while walking, to fend off the horrible plagues which infest this futuristic earth. The entire surface of the planet is covered, inch by inch, with city, each city separated by a high wall and ruled by a single Corporation official, each city identified not by name, but by number. The only plants and animals that still live are raised on floating platforms on the sea, where food is grown and processed before being sent in its most nutritious, broken-down form back to the cities. Pets are not living, breathing creatures, but artificially intelligent robots purchased to give children the feeling of caring for a living creature. Many humans, even, are not entirely flesh and blood, but comprise partially of machine; either to replace missing body parts, or simple for the advantages of having robotic parts. This is a world of chaos and corruption, of pain and deceit, illness and death. There is little hope in this world. That little hope comes from the Knightwatch.
Plagues
The massive pollution of the world has created a cesspool of infectious diseases. There are those who are immune, and those who have already survived and can not catch the plagues again, but new plagues are always appearing, and Evermist?s medical branch can not quite keep up with them. There are very, very few people in the world who have not been afflicted by at least one of these plagues, and most have had several. Below are a list of the most common plagues. None have a real cure. Symptoms can be treated and suppressed, but it is up to the human?s own body to keep them alive.
1. The Blood Death ? a disease that, over time, changes the chemistry of blood. Mostly undetectable until its final stages, by the time it is noticed a person has no chance of surviving. Those who have survived never found out that they had it in the first place. The disease progresses as a silent killer, unnoticed until the victim suddenly collapses. Once the victim has collapsed, it can take as little as two days, or as long as a month for the blood to turn black and cease carrying oxygen, slowly suffocating the victim?s body. Sometimes the body also over-produces blood, and it begins to leak, often resulting in the signature symptom of crying blood. It is remarkably painful.
2. The Restriction ? a disease of the lungs, which slowly chokes the victim. An airborn disease which infects through inhalation, it settles directly in the lungs and begins to eat away at them, clogging the tubes which transport oxygen to the blood. Early symptoms are similar to those of asthma, but as it progresses victims may also begin to cough up blood, or stop breathing entirely. Victims can not sleep, for fear that they will stop breathing. Even those who can breath find it excruciatingly painful to do so. Many kill themselves to relieve that pain, even before the disease has run its course. Eventually, though it may take as long as ten years, the lungs will simply collapse, and the victim will die. This disease can be survived, even after symptoms appear, though it leaves the victims permanently short of breath and restricted to places where they can be helped if they suffer an attack. Thus, the name.
3. The Rot ? a vicious disease of the flesh. It is less likely to be lethal than the other three plagues, but it leaves its victims deformed and wary of walking in the open. It is often a great deal more localized than the other diseases, this being the reason that it often maims, rather than killing. The Rot appears as a blackish rash just under the skin in the infected area; often an arm, or the stomach. Almost never will the Rot cover the entire body, and these are the cases which are most often killed. The Rot gets under the skin and grows there. It is excruciatingly painful, as it eats away at the flesh, and once it reaches the nerves the pain is virtually impossible to escape. Some take drugs, others simply learn to live with it. The black rash never fades, even once the disease has died and ended its progress, leaving the victims permanently marked. More suspicious people believe that it is contagious by physical contact, and will avoid Rot victims like they themselves are a plague. This is not true. The Rot is not transmitted by contact with victims; it is stimulated by contact with a certain chemical, which Evermist has put abundances of into the air. Everyone in the world has been exposed to this chemical. The Rot is a genetic mutation which interacts badly with this chemical, causing the painful rotting of flesh. Those who are going to get the Rot, already have it.
4. The Possession ? a painful disease that attacks the connections in the brain, and so affects the mind. The affects of individual cases vary greatly, to the point of being entirely unpredictable. It can drive a man insane, or cut his mind off so completely that he falls into a sort of trance. It can result in numbness, blindness, deafness, tastelessness, and even the loss of control over parts of the body. Afflicted by the Possession, men have been driven to raging violence. It can create hallucinations, or erase memories. Eventually, however, they all result in one of two things. Either the victims survive, and live a helpless life at the mercy of others, or the victims fall into a coma and die.
Medical Technology
Anything can be replaced. Humans can live for a century or more, because of the new technologies. Limbs are replaced, and people are suddenly much stronger and faster than their normal friends. Eyes and ears and hearts and lungs are replaced. Most people have something in their bodies which is robotic, by the time they are fifteen years old. Some choose to have something removed and replaced with robotics, because they function more neatly than normal human bodies. Of course, there are those who disdain this use of technology within the human body, but most of society loves the idea that any of them could run and jump off buildings like the people in the movies. Official ID is required to have these operations, because the Knightwatch members were having things done which made them impossible to catch, because they were so strong and agile. Of course, making the operations inaccessible to vigilantes did not stop them; the operations just went onto the black market.
The Freedom Cult and its Prosecution
Since the rise of the Evermist Corporation, a cult has sprung up, called the Freedom Cult. Comprising of people who share ideas with the Knightwatch, they protest the outright control of Evermist. Several of these protests have become violent, but their popularity is rapidly growing. They are dangerous to the Evermist, so naturally the Knightwatch funds them. Anyone found associated with them, however, is immediately put to death by the powers that be. As such, membership has become one of the most closely guarded secrets in the world. The Knightwatch patrols the city every night, keeping a special eye on the houses of members of the Freedom Cult. It is a constant battle to get the Knightwatch members to the site of raids before the corporation dogs can finish their work. Sometimes, Evermist will stage raids on total innocents to try and draw Knightwatch out, but as of yet they have never successful captured, detained, and executed a single member of the Watch.
The Knightwatch and its History
The Knightwatch started as a one-man show, led by the mysterious figure called simply ?The Knight?. No one knew who he was, or how he did what he did, but he managed to assassinate six corporate officials in little over a month, and save dozens of innocent people from persecution as members of the Freedom Cult. In two months, the price on his head had risen up over two million American dollars, and his masked face had become legend. It was not long before other masked figures began to appear, mimicking the Knight in his heroics. Rather than have them all fight, and get killed, separately, the Knight contacted these copy vigilantes and proposed an alliance. And so his name became the Watcher, and the Knightwatch was born. To this day, none but the Watcher?s equally mysterious second-in-command have seen his face. Though the members of the Knightwatch all know his name, none know what he looks like behind that pale white mask.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/D_KIHGEUIrE/viewtopic.php
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