Introduction

Let me tell you a story.

It started a few hundred years ago, in a land we used to call Heim. Heim was a bustling industrial country of fantastical proportions. Diverse cities and villages specializing in all sorts of goods. A place of commerce, Heim was. Of growth, innovation, science. Inventions beyond one’s wildest dreams became the norm. Fashion and culinary geniuses sprouted up like weeds. It wasn't long before Heim became the capital country of the world. A single news thread would influence the rest of the world. It got so far as Heim reinventing what it meant to be happy.

Friends meant nothing. Wealth meant everything.

C-City, the greatest city in Heim, became a hub for wealth and the wealthy. Skyscrapers that blotted out the dirt, dazzling neon lights that scared away the darkness, piercing surround sound that forever comforted the lonely. It was paradise for many, hell for everyone.

It was a simple day in the middle of June. People going about their day, children unknowingly clinging to their final days of ignorance, weeds scrambling for any purchase, a small cloud drifting by. A darkness that defied all explanations covered the land of Heim. Questions are still uttered today in regards to that particular phenomenon.

That darkness, it lasted a mere second but in that second, unspeakable horrors were unleashed. Heim fell within the week. Nearly half a billion refugees flooded into their neighboring nations before anybody could rationalize a thought. The results were disastrous, prompting the other countries of the world to raise their defenses and eventually, effectively quarantined Heim. Those who were inside were locked in forever and those outside, could never enter.

The year is 2053, 15 years after the fall of Heim. This is where I begin.