Dowens’ Rest, Maine, US
Dowens’ Rest is an old town, founded quickly after Spiralist colonists landed in the bigger port city of Draille. Despite being a small town DR is a pillar of the US Spiral Church. Many of the faith’s strongest followers came from the northeast coast, and many more visit to pay homage to one of the “birthplaces” of the US Spiral.
Three families are seen as DR’s founding pillars: the Dowens family, the Renall family, and the Le Rune family. All three still hold power today.
Lissi, Bratvo Procence, Savo
Lissi was once a booming little town. One of Verdusk’s biggest factory-cities, it housed a near-endless churn for the Great War’s unending machine.
Once Verdusk collapsed, Lissi was siezed (along with the rest of what is now Savo) by the United Dimitrigrad Federation. The UDF kicked Savo’s factories back online after the war but soon found itself struggling to survive it’s own turbulence. The UDF pulled out of Lissi in the late 1970’s, killing the local factories and the area’s tight economy in a week. The UDF’s struggle to keep it’s stranglehold on the surrounding areas was amplified when, post-war, an evangelical Spiralist group known as the Rizen came to claim the country’s lands.
The town now known as Lissi sits as a reminder of what used to be, a post-post-war city killed by two sudden infrastructural cuts and an identity war that further stripped it of promise. Those who live here rarely ever leave now, and those who come never seem to stay. Lissi is the stain on a postcard, a once lively Bavarian bloc town reduced to a rusted dot along many others within a struggling mountain range.
Wellbay Isle, UK
Wellbay never was much of a place of note. It was a strong, tightly knit Spiralist community with little else to say, at least until the Great War. It’s connections and ties to the greater UK were little until the boom of the war.
Wellbay didn’t stay booming though, and as the world stepped away from continued annihilation so too did Wellbay’s surrounding cities slow down their rapid growl. The town reverted back to it’s smaller scale in the 1970’s and has stayed a quiet English town ever since.
The biggest shake-up to Wellbay was the return of the Mason family. The locals didn’t really have much to say when the Masons came back after decades of abandonment, though rumors of a daughter to the wealthy family are stirring the town’s keen eyes.
Verdusk’s Legacy
Verdusk was the soul of the Spiralist faith, a place in which all would come and pray. Verdusk expanded during the 1890’s, a move that would soon draw criticism - both from neighboring Spiralist nations and others. In the 1920’s Verdusk made a critical error, pronouncing the countries at its border to be “whole property of Verdusk”. From here a war began to brew, and repeated clashes with outside forces would balloon into full-scale war within a decade.
The UDF, quick to claim a stake in the conflict, joined the growing war and clashed with the VDsKM - Verdusk’s army - at numerous points. The war grew in severity and size with Verdusk soon finding itself cornered on all sides. The Chamber-President, Edward Maravina, realized that the conflict would soon result in Verdusk’s loss on the Spiral Holy Land, Karsk, and deemed that if Verdusk were to lose the land none would have it.
On the final day of the Great War, Verdusk’s army was issued a final command. Maravina, hellbent on ensuring that none could claim “his lands”, issued that Verdusk and the paths to the steppetown be wiped clean. This nuclear self-immolation wiped out countless people on all sides, and had a side effect of triggering the so-called Cataclysm.
Radios went ballistic, vehicles stalled, a rift opened up over the wasteland, and everyone within Verdusk’s borders - be they ally or enemy - was annihilated. Bodies were mangled, outposts cleansed, and the remnants of the war’s multitude of factions were left with silence upon checking in.
Out of the ashes, a new group rose, one who would lay claim to everything the Spiralists had lost: the Rizen. This new group, an evangelical Spiralist denomination, would rapidly expand around the radiation-filled zones while pushing back against the factions seeking to stake their claims.
Verdusk in the modern day is a warning, an inhospitable story of death and cruelty and the punishments handed out by a Goddess long-defiled. The only ones who approach the Siwa Exclusion Zone are Rizen patrols and Stalkers looking to scavenge the dead country’s remains.
The Siwa Exclusion Zone and the Verdusk Territories
Modern-day Verdusk is a ramchackle of countries, each one struggling to survive. South east is Savo, an industrial range abandoned by the UDF. South west is Kyovkret, an agricultural nation struggling to break free from Verdusk’s shadow. The middle area between these two and the Zone is Vostek, the core of the Rizen faith.
While Kyovkret and Savo have little to offer on their own, they’re backed up by the Rizen’s vast reach. Vostek was carved out of post-war Verdusk with little elegance, it’s borders a bloody mess and it’s capital - Myrreko - a dangerous place. Myrreko, while safe for those under the Rizen faith, does little to welcome outsiders. Her soldiers are armed with faith and fire, patrolling the country with a ruthless efficiency. The Rizen territories impose martial law and heavy-handed punishments: Spiralists are imprisoned, and those caught sneaking toward the Zone are executed regardless of their motives. Mother Marianne’s word is law, and that law is enforced to the letter.
The Zone itself hasn’t been investigated; the Rizen refuse access to all. What little is known is based on outside eyes looking in, while the rest is rumors and a mix of both Spiralist and Rizen speculation. Both sides agree that their Goddess was stirred, neither agree on which Goddess, nor how or why She brought her wrath down on the world. Spiralists claim that their deity - Mother Predzkya - punished Verdusk for it’s sins while Rizen claim that Predzkya’s “Vessel” Marianne enacted the massacre. The differences, however, are minute. Regardless of which cause brought the effect, the effect is here. The Zone cannot be accessed, and the few who have gone to investigate report creatures and hauntings that would make even the strongest skeptic hesitant.
Karsokm - the Spiral’s core
When the Great Karsk War started, most figured it would be over and done within a week. After all, this wasn’t the first time differing Spiralist sects had fought over this land.
But what started as “just another Karsk conflict” quickly ballooned into a larger fight. Karsk, as the people from Verdusk called it, was considered to be the beginning of the Spiral faith - though it had far humbler beginnings.
Verdusk soon found itself fighting against two primary factions, while other groups stood on the sides and waited for the leftovers.
What was once a small town north of the Predzkya steppe became a holy battleground as these major factions fought for “rightful ownership” of the fabled land.
Post-war, Karsk is abandoned, seemingly sharing the same fate as Verdusk’s own capital, Siwa. All paths to the three-point coast are inhospitable and none who try to see it ever return.
The nightmare
Our three protagonists have always felt different. Their dreams are violent, their nightmares are worse, and their connection to the other side is alien Yet these things all pale in comparison to the ‘nightmare’ they seem to share.
This nightmare is a dark place, a fractured mirror of the real world full of horrid creatures, ghosts, and worse monsters. Only those with an inherent connection to the nightmare can access it, unless one is granted permission by the very God the Rizen worship.
Each group has a term for it: some say nightmare, others say otherworld, the Rizen dub it “Paradise”, but those with the blessing to glimpse it cannot stay for long. Rizen patrols are always seen carrying pills and incense and weapons for war.