We thought that the end of the world was the worst thing we could live through. We were wrong.
250 years ago, society collapsed in fire. Nuclear missiles rained down on cities, soldiers fought in the streets. Bombs and terrorists and disease ran rampant, leaving the former world in ruins. Entire countries vanished overnight, while others limped into a slow death, and began to fade away.
Small bands of survivors tried to make it work among the devastation, but few made it, succumbing to fallout, radiation, the remnants of plagues or the reavers of the new world. Eventually, even they went quiet.
Some saw the end coming before it did, and prepared. They went into shelters, deep in the ground, only emerging when it seemed safe. But their supplies couldn't last. When they came into the world, they took over the ruins of London, now known as the Hollow, building walls thirty feet high and creating a new society.
Life was hard in the new world, though. Our technology was primitive, scavenged and bolted together from the last advances before the Earth ceased to be. Food didn't grow, plant life was scarce. Even the sky was tainted by what had come before it, the rain now burning what it landed on, the wind carrying viruses we'd never seen before.
The only way to manage the city, which as far as they knew was the only bastion of civilisation left, was control. Thus, the new society fragmented into component parts, each working towards a common goal. The Rangers would be repsonsible for going outside of the Wall, searching for food, technology, anything to help us survive, and for charting the bizarre new life developing n the wasteland. The Guilds would manage the industrial, agricultural and commercial life in the city. The Sages would maintain the knowledge of the city, and see to the health of its citizens. The Justicars would enforce order among the populace, and the Divine, always there even in the darkest hours, would see to the spiritual needs of the people. A governing council drawn from all parts of the city would oversee its civil operation.
The city has been here for over 100 years now, and we are the next generation. We're free within the bounds of the Hollow, but we all have to follow the rules. Otherwise, we're cast out, and become the Forgotten, exiles doomed to a short, brutish life beyond the safety of the Hollow. For many, there is nothing beyond the walls.
For others, we wonder if there could be something more.
