Prologue
The prophets of the true north teach that man has endured two great deluges since the world began, the first of water sent to wash our sinful earth clean and the second in a fire to burn away our transgressions. In truth, no one knows how exactly it happened, fragmented texts and preserved stories speak of a war between great nations, of cities reduced to dust, and of duels fought by godlike machines in the darkness of the void. No one knows how it happened, whether it was divine punishment or man's own hubris, what we do know is how the old world ended, in the beginning, there was light, and then came darkness.
The north was scoured clean by the horror of the flash, those not sequestered in caves or bunkers were erased from the world's face, only ash remaining to prove they had ever existed at all. when the flash subsided the true horrors began, the black rain, the wrath of the ocean and sky, and the onset of a winter shrouded in darkness. Death stalked the land and hunger gnawed at the bellies of any that remained, those few crazed souls that emerged into the nightmare of a broken earth did so blinded by the flash and maddened by starvation.
The cannibal was born in sin, trading his humanity for sustenance, they spread across the darkened earth, eating, multiplying, and eating again, locusts come to taint the fields of man. For a time these degenerate creatures ruled over the north, a fallen kingdom of bones and cackling ghouls, but though the spirit of man slept, it had not perished from the earth. in the embrace of the soil, the pure seed of adam waited, in the iron womb of bunkers and catacombs the true heirs of mankind bided their time and awaited the moment they would rise anew.
Decades passed and the earth began to heal, the sun rose anew and the storms began to clear, mankind emerged from the stygian depths and like a newborn, took its first tentative steps into a world it had forgotten. For a time the children of Caine continued their terror, they feasted on the pure and the guilty alike, their raids leaving a memory of horrors that would endure for centuries. This too would come to pass, a new power was stirring in the frozen north.
Sequestered in an ancient military vault a remnant of old America stirred from its long torpor, the descendants of a secret facility now poised to strike. In the last days of the war, a secret installation had been established deep in the Alaskan tundra, Castle Rock, part military fortress and part doomsday bunker, it had been intended to preserve the war effort, instead, it had allowed a fragment of old America to endure. The children of the Castlerock survivors had been molded by a militaristic culture, trained from birth to be the ultimate warriors of the frozen wastes. led by Colonel Ingrid Haley, they revealed themselves, determined to reclaim the world and unite the scattered remnants of Alaska. They called themselves pathfinders.
Gathering a ragtag alliance of survivalists, zealots, and refugees, Haley led a long campaign against the cannibals that had infested the ruins of the north. For years a bloody war was prosecuted to wrest back control of what was rightfully mankind, the children of Caine responding with vicious reprisals. In the end, the cannibals were defeated, and their fortress of old anchorage was seized and claimed for the benefit of humanity once more, the battle of anchorage ended with the birth of a nation and the ascendency of Haley.
We cleared the ruins, bones, and detritus cast aside, Colonel Haley, now President of the northern confederacy, commanded her people to settle and build anew. over time ruins gave way to dwellings of wood and stone and from anchorage a great trader's way spread out across the wastes, settlements rising as society clawed its way back from the precipice. Haley died a saint, revered by the cult of the true north and adored by the nation she had founded.
The Pathfinders would keep vigil over their new nation, hunting its enemies and protecting its citizens, their sacrifices ensuring the survival of the confederacy for generations. Today Anchorage is the jewel of the north, a thriving capital holding authority over countless satellite settlements. But the world is far from tamed, the children of Caine still stalk the darkness, preying on the innocent and the tales from the south grow more troubling with each passing day, danger lurks on the horizon. The Pathfinders stand ready to face any danger, the old world oath remains true "Find the way or Make One!"
The prophets of the true north teach that man has endured two great deluges since the world began, the first of water sent to wash our sinful earth clean and the second in a fire to burn away our transgressions. In truth, no one knows how exactly it happened, fragmented texts and preserved stories speak of a war between great nations, of cities reduced to dust, and of duels fought by godlike machines in the darkness of the void. No one knows how it happened, whether it was divine punishment or man's own hubris, what we do know is how the old world ended, in the beginning, there was light, and then came darkness.
The north was scoured clean by the horror of the flash, those not sequestered in caves or bunkers were erased from the world's face, only ash remaining to prove they had ever existed at all. when the flash subsided the true horrors began, the black rain, the wrath of the ocean and sky, and the onset of a winter shrouded in darkness. Death stalked the land and hunger gnawed at the bellies of any that remained, those few crazed souls that emerged into the nightmare of a broken earth did so blinded by the flash and maddened by starvation.
The cannibal was born in sin, trading his humanity for sustenance, they spread across the darkened earth, eating, multiplying, and eating again, locusts come to taint the fields of man. For a time these degenerate creatures ruled over the north, a fallen kingdom of bones and cackling ghouls, but though the spirit of man slept, it had not perished from the earth. in the embrace of the soil, the pure seed of adam waited, in the iron womb of bunkers and catacombs the true heirs of mankind bided their time and awaited the moment they would rise anew.
Decades passed and the earth began to heal, the sun rose anew and the storms began to clear, mankind emerged from the stygian depths and like a newborn, took its first tentative steps into a world it had forgotten. For a time the children of Caine continued their terror, they feasted on the pure and the guilty alike, their raids leaving a memory of horrors that would endure for centuries. This too would come to pass, a new power was stirring in the frozen north.
Sequestered in an ancient military vault a remnant of old America stirred from its long torpor, the descendants of a secret facility now poised to strike. In the last days of the war, a secret installation had been established deep in the Alaskan tundra, Castle Rock, part military fortress and part doomsday bunker, it had been intended to preserve the war effort, instead, it had allowed a fragment of old America to endure. The children of the Castlerock survivors had been molded by a militaristic culture, trained from birth to be the ultimate warriors of the frozen wastes. led by Colonel Ingrid Haley, they revealed themselves, determined to reclaim the world and unite the scattered remnants of Alaska. They called themselves pathfinders.
Gathering a ragtag alliance of survivalists, zealots, and refugees, Haley led a long campaign against the cannibals that had infested the ruins of the north. For years a bloody war was prosecuted to wrest back control of what was rightfully mankind, the children of Caine responding with vicious reprisals. In the end, the cannibals were defeated, and their fortress of old anchorage was seized and claimed for the benefit of humanity once more, the battle of anchorage ended with the birth of a nation and the ascendency of Haley.
We cleared the ruins, bones, and detritus cast aside, Colonel Haley, now President of the northern confederacy, commanded her people to settle and build anew. over time ruins gave way to dwellings of wood and stone and from anchorage a great trader's way spread out across the wastes, settlements rising as society clawed its way back from the precipice. Haley died a saint, revered by the cult of the true north and adored by the nation she had founded.
The Pathfinders would keep vigil over their new nation, hunting its enemies and protecting its citizens, their sacrifices ensuring the survival of the confederacy for generations. Today Anchorage is the jewel of the north, a thriving capital holding authority over countless satellite settlements. But the world is far from tamed, the children of Caine still stalk the darkness, preying on the innocent and the tales from the south grow more troubling with each passing day, danger lurks on the horizon. The Pathfinders stand ready to face any danger, the old world oath remains true "Find the way or Make One!"