Wallmenders: Defenders of Humanity
It could be said that the legacy of the Wallmender started in 2055, when Humanity had begun to send its first colonial space flights into outer space. We made successful landings on Mars, Venus, and Jupiter. It would take time, but these colonies were set to prosper into Humanity’s first symbolic full step off of Earth, and into the surrounding Sol System. Times seemed exceptionally bright, the dreams of Humanity were in grasp. Of course, like all good things, it came to an abrupt end, sadly. On a peaceful Autumn day, after a few months of peaceful expansion without many hiccups, all three of the colonies went suddenly silent on all venues of communication. In the control rooms on Earth, the anxiety and fear were palpable, the scientists and generals fearing their greatest nightmares had come true.
For a sparse moment , all of the communications reconnected, but there was no large sigh of relief. All of the camera feeds showed a single, horrifying face, alien in every way. To simply look at the face gave even the strongest of men a feeling of fear in their gut strong enough to cripple them. It spoke in a slurred, heavily raspy and broken English. None of it’s face moved, but it spoke anyways. The words that it uttered cast more fear over the control rooms than even its face did.
“Humanity, like many before it, has stepped beyond boundaries. Now, must be eliminated as threat.”
The control rooms went into a frenzy, trying to find out who broadcasted the message, where it was broadcasted from. The generals moved to scramble the best defenses they could muster against whatever they could possibly be attacked by. Among all the frenzy, the broadcast came again, but instead, over all of the phones, radios and televisions of the world. The ominous threat was broadcasted to every person on the planet, and created even greater frenzy and panic than that of before. The entire planet was rushing to get into any great shelters and bunkers they could. The mood on earth was that of the end time, and it wasn’t too far from the truth.
On October 17th, 2056, the skies all over Earth darkened, thought it was not simple clouds behind it. The skies were filled with massive ships of incomprehensible size, all in strange shapes and formations, but threatening all the same. The military systems of Earth had detected their arrival, and all of it’s largest weapons were pointed towards the skies and unleashed their deadly payload. Fortunately, the ships of the hostile alien race were not completely impervious as before feared, and a few of the smaller ones struggled to keep themselves afloat in the atmosphere.
The attack of the humans, in the end, would prove to be vain, and massive beams or energy erupted from the ships, striking the earth with unforgiving ferocity. Before any counter attack could be made, entire lands were completely wiped of any and all life, left barren, rocky crust. Millions were killed within a few minutes, Billions within the hour.
When all was said and done, most of the planet’s surface had been effectively glassed, and only a small bastion of devastated humans were left on earth, as if it was planned to be that way from the beginning. One last city, which could sustain roughly 1 million humans at max capacity, was left. Before the Devastation, as survivors had come to call it, the city was called Vextrik, but it’s name had been changed to the suiting Bastion. The surviving humans then set out to fortify what was left of their race to eek out what sort of survival they could.
Soon after they began recovery, they were visited by yet another alien race, but this one was, thankfully, more friendly race. The emissary quickly gave the remnants of government a package of information, before making its quick exit off the planet, noting that consorting with other races was dangerous. The package informed the humans that the race that attacked them was a race of near-gods known as the Chor. They considered themselves the rulers of the universe, and anytime a race of intelligent life evolved far enough for interplanetary travel, that race was either exterminated or near exterminated, and those that survived were either left to slowly die, or were later hunted for sport by the Chor. No race of life thus far had anywhere near enough strength to fight back against the Chor. There were three other races of life, the Rennai, the Zublar, and Xenobes that were left in nearby systems. It was unknown if any other races had encountered the Chor. The information was sparse past that, and the visit by the alien had left many mysterious questions to the humans.
Time carried on, with the humans using the factories and laboratories that they had to manufacture and maintain a very limited amount high-tech items. Small fleet of escape vessels were kept in storage, ready to use if the need ever arise. In terms of weaponry, a single cache of military grade weapons were left, and were used exclusively by those tasked to guard the city boundaries. Most of the the best availalble equipment was reserved for the Security, but has rarely been used, as there are next to no hostile lifeforms left on earth.
Using all the spare and excess metal they had, along with the little bit they could refine from the surrounding badlands, Humanity begin to wall itself away, building a large metal wall, 25 feet tall, 5 feet thick, in a circumference around the city. At some points, the wall bordered the Outlands themselves, and at other points, it fell in the badlands, making the job of the engineers a fairly varied experience.
After many years, the construction was finally finished, and then it was time to appoint those that would defend it if the time came that the Chor returned, and Humanity would need to be defended long enough to leave the planet. A chosen few were selected to be Wallmenders, given access to the best and very limited technology that it would utilize in Earth’s defense. The original Wallmenders were some of the best warriors and brightest thinkers the city had to offer, and the prestige that came with being a Wallmender was unprecedented.
As the years wore on, and the Chor threat never made itself be seen, the value and prestige of being a Wallmender was fading. The work was not easy, and the lack of any sort of combat led to dull troops and dull knives. It seemed like that Chor would never show up, but Humanity could never let its guard down.
The Roleplay
We will be playing as the current generation of Wallmenders, a bunch of restless and worn out troops, tired of the waning respect for them and in dire need of something to hone their combat skills. We’re well into our second month of Wall duty, and there are rumors floating around that the Chor may have met an alien race that has the strength to give it trouble.
Wallmender Culture
Instead of living in the city, Wallmenders live in small, houses or shacks, or groups of either two on top of, or next to the wall. The Wallmenders, while they are technically soldiers, they do not have such strict organization, but do have set roles. Some are Gunnies, Wallmenders who man the various mounted weapon sites on the wall, and wait from signals from the Eagles, Wallmenders who occupy the highest points on the wall, and monitor the land and sky, day in and day out, looking for threats, ready to use their proven aim to disable anything that come their way. Those of the Wallmenders that are medically-inclined become the Medicine Men, Wallmenders that make sure that the others are in their best shape, both physically and mentally, and heal injuries that could be sustained on the job. Others are Metal Monkeys, those of the less combat-oriented Wallmenders that scale the wall all day every day, making sure it maintains its structural integrity and strength, which are constantly tested by the sands blowing in from the Badlands. Monkeys also tend to keep up the plumbing, electric, and other utilities of the Wallmender villages.
Very few Wallmenders are part of the Caretaker Squadron, 4 men and women that are the leaders and representatives of each separate clans of Wallmenders. When there is a dispute among Wallmenders, a Wallmender needs help with a specific problem, or something simple involving non-work duties needs mediating, they are the ones that this responsibility falls upon.
The one person that makes any decision final is the Chief. When anything major needs to be decided, the 4 Caretakers present their arguments and ideas to the Chief, who makes the final decision. Other than that, the Chief makes most of the major orders and edicts involving the Wallmenders, and makes the call when the current set of Wallmenders on his section of the wall are ready for a change out.
Wallmenders may have families, but the civilians of the family do not live near the wall as it is too dangerous. ‘Shifts’ of Wallmenders trade out every few months to allow the tired ones to return to their families, and the new ones take their place, sort of like tours. Otherwise, Wallmenders are forbidden from forming families between themselves. They may elope and engage in active relationships, but may not have children, unless one of them resigns, or the child has a stable caretaker outside of the Wallmenders.
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