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The Gamma World is a terrifying place ... hardly recognizable to those familiar with the America that existed before the "Social Wars" of the early 24th century destroyed world civilization. To the inhabitants of North America in 2450, the time before the "Social Wars" is called the "Shadow Years" since so little is known about it. Even the specific events that destroyed their nation are all but forgotten by these new Americans. Legends persist, of course, but the truth of those legends may never be known. The world-wide holocaust simply wiped out too much. Lasers, atomic warheads, chemical and biological agents and geological weapons all did their terrible work. Oceans boiled. Continents buckled. The skies blazed with the light of unholy energies. By the time the violence subsided, the very face of the earth had changed. Much of North America, including most of Florida and the low-lying Gulf area, California and parts of the Eastern Seaboard were under water. Mountains had fallen. Rivers that had been tamed for 500 years careened wildly through the ruins of broken dams. Not a single city remained intact. The Black Years descended on the Land of the Free. Less dramatic but more important than the destruction of the continent was the alteration in its surviving inhabitants. Not one in 5000 humans lived through the upheaval. Those who survived witnessed a biogenetic revolution. Animals began to repopulate the Earth ... and what animals! Vast herds of jackrabbits the size of horses began to cover the Great Plains. A strain of beetle appeared which grew to a length of three meters. A mutated form of shark adapted to life on land began to prowl the desert. But more important than these physical mutations were the mental mutations which began appearing ... lizards with telepathy and foreboding, plants able to disrupt the molecular structure of their victims, a dog-man capable of telekinesis. Nor was man immune to the effects of massive doses of biogenetic chemicals and radiation. All manner of mutations soon entered the gene pool. Most were defects that disappeared. But in the 150 years after the holocaust many became a permanent part of human breeding stock. This, then, is the Gamma World ... successor to planet Earth. It is a land of brooding forests, wild unbroken plains and rugged mountains. In places the wilds give way to man-made deserts where cities once stood. Scattered across the continent are a few settlements where the heirs of America's industrial barons force a precarious living from the hostile land. In this place nature is merciless, death is quick and strangers are regarded with suspicion. Faced with a harsh environment, the survivors of the holocaust have joined together for protection in tribes, clans and feudal states. Augmenting these social systems are the so-called Cryptic Alliances ... secret brotherhoods devoted to the reorganization of society according to their own beliefs. There are many of these, some born long ago in the Shadow Years. Journey now, into the far future where life is both dangerous and exciting ... where those who lived before are called "the Ancients" and are regarded with awe for their dimly-understood art and science ... where the wonders of man's highest technology exist side-by-side with the stone axe and the coat of chainmail ... where exotic mutations abound and strange new powers of the mind shape human life. Journey now to the Gamma World. |
