A BioHazard® 5.0 play-by-post adventure run by bh5ogm
The characters start in the small swampland farming community of Arlktn. The community is a tightly-knit and traditional village that is physically isolated from surrounding habitation by a dense, murky swamp. A single road leads out of the village northward, but Arlktn is very self-sufficient. A strange mix of primitive and super-advanced technology exists here. The townspeople make their own pottery, houses, roofs, and furniture out of the clay and mud that is easily found in the earth. They use 21st century instant water purifiers to create drinking water out of the radioactive rain and filthy swamp water. They eat the gourds, worms, and small animals that exist naturally. They light their homes with solar-powered bright LED lamps at night, and start fires with thermal coils powered by solar-charged batteries.
The climate is warm. Much like the rest of the Merigan Continent, the climate quickly turned tropical after the holocaust, suprisingly more humid and rainy than pre-catalclysmic climatologists had expected of a post-nuclear earth. Here in the southeastern corner of the misshapen continent, the humidity is constantly thick.
Growing up in Arlktn is never dull. The harvest of the mud fields is tiring, inefficient work. The strange new grains, gourds and starches that grow here are in a state of super-evolution, constantly changing their harvesting depths, seasons, shapes, colors, and tastes. Constant supervision is required. Making the agricultural lifestyle even more difficult is the swamplife. The swamp is gray, foggy, moist, and water-filled year-round. Arlktn is hemmed in by knee-deep portions of swamp, and sits itself on more or less solid earth that villagers must constantly reinforce. But the swamp is alive. Growing up in the village, a youth will hear the stories of the Coakers in the swamp, the Eleneps, and few will not hear the terrifying howl of the Jepperd. The Jepperds pose the greatest threat to the village and any who wander out in the swamp. These fierce cat creatures resemble dark, slender, furry leopards, with the speed and agility of jaguars and the ferocity of tigers. They are almost undetectable in their native forest because of their chameleon abilities.
But the people of Arlktn are not helpless. As bucolic as their lifestyle is, the men are confident, brave and honorable, and the women are as independent as they are intelligent. Youth are developed to be hardy and intelligent---they know the dangers as well as the ways of the swamp. Each adolescent, male or female, must pass a test of adult right in which they must leave their secure home of Arlktn and journey into the outside realm, and return a changed and educated adult.
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