As I wandered through my backyard woods, I noticed something strange. I could feel my knees ache of one million footsteps, but my woods were only half a mile deep. And what's more, I couldn't recall when I entered the woods. In fact, I only remembered walking. I realised I knew nothing. Not my name, nor what a "name" was. Not my mother, my sister, nor if I had any family at all. I looked at my hands, and they were not my hands. And if they were, I wouldn't know it, and I wouldn't know I wouldn't know. As I realised this, I came to the conclusion that there was only one thing left I did know. And because I knew nothing else besides walking, I kept walking. Walking, and walking, and walking. Maybe a year passed by, maybe 30. I didn't know. Because the trees were not trees, the birds were not birds, and I was not me, only something that had been walking for a very long time.

Miles of mud:

"Humans are predictable when they're cornered and greedy."
— Eli's brain while thinking about this

1: core thing: overpopulation, mutants, and segregation.

ok, here me out. The world is so populated, that the line between immediate family and 50th cousin blurs. Various factors (see below) lead to the start of "mutants", or strata. 4 arms, drastic elephantiasis, etc. now, because humans suck by nature, this basically makes racisim/sexisim two. You're not different because you're a different sex or race, but a different breed. This is known as stratisim. (strata + isim).

One main strata is the golden backs. These are "people" who grow gold on their bones from birth, and the piercing through the skin. golden backs or Graksins (which is a slur) are seen as money, not people. They are sold by the hundreds to be "harvested". the gold bits being ripped out of them by spider like machines (think matrix robots + that spider thing from spider man across the spider verse).

Another strata are four arms. These are people who are born with four arms, as the name suggests. These people are forced to do repetitive factory jobs, because of their extra utility. Although the government has technologies that can automate this, they force four arms or Splitters (the slur) to do it, because it's cheap, takes less money, and is more disposable. (bodies can be punished, threatened, bred, and replaced).

Another strata, called filters, are popular with the rich. generations of street-strata forced to survive on rot, refuse, vermin, chemical runoff, and spoiled food. Over time, through mutation, selective breeding, toxic exposure, and survival pressure, some developed hyper-adaptive digestive systems capable of extracting nutrients and neutralizing poisons that would kill ordinary people. These strata are rare, and are sold for thousands. But their purpose is much darker. They are condensed to about the size of a liver, through extreme surgery. They are composed of a stomach, a brain, and their unique food processing system. They are then implanted, through surgery, into the rich, to act as an organ. Note that they are still 100% conscious while inside the host. They filter out tobacco, and alcohol, for the rich. You see, the rich usually consume so much drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, that one should expect they die in weeks. But they survive, through a living organism, inside them. Creepy shit.

(from "see below") overpopulation caused state-controlled breeding programs, pollution, chemical runoff, war toxins, and industrial food altered development. extreme density plus inherited instability created new human strata over generations. some mutations are random, some are selected for, some are deliberately bred (golden backs).

2: What started the war.

the strata thing, that's background, not current. essentially, the government of fault (the world's main economic superpower), simultaneously got super powerful, and super unstable. But it's well known throughout Soem (the planet) that the fault emperor is greedy, and dumb. The government of fault needed some way to distract from the fact that fault was destroying itself. so, they staged a terrorist attack on Faults capital, ramal. Fault's close ally, Staag, thought it was real, and blamed it on Thoume (there had been tension between the two states. Thoume is less strict about strata labor, and tried to spread it to Fault. This disrupted trade routes, and thus began tension between the two). And before anyone could stop it, there were Staagian troops invading Thoume. and that started the war.

2.5: Faults role in the war.

After the invasion of Thoume, fault stepped back. They advertised that they fought with Staag against Thoume, but only sent maybe 10 troops. Fault's main goal is to make people believe that Fault is doing all the heavy lifting. Even though Staag is the main combatant. Then, Fault will profit off supplying staag.

2.75: war history

Staag notices that the numbers don't add up (as in fault isn't really doing much in the war besides making money), and blames it on Thoumian spies in the Fault government. so, Staag tries to help fault get rid of the spies that aren't there. a weaker ally of fault (rad. Also, Rad is not weaker in military power, but in relation to Fault) mistakes staags operation on fault as an attack, and invades staag. Thoume notices that Staag is fighting two fronts, and is weaker than usual. So, they push harder. But not against Staag, but against Fault. Thoume still thinks that Fault is doing the heavy lifting. This forces Fault to take action, and defend itself against Thoume. Then. Staags close ally cadeel invades Thoume. causing Thoume to weaken. Fault sees an opportunity. Fault sends spies into Thoume, and gathers enough info to do one crucial move. They disguise themselves as a different weapon supplier, but it's still Faults weapons. and Fault starts supplying Thoume, their enemy. Sooner or later Thoume will find out, but they can't attack fault. If they do, they won't have weapons to fight against cadeel. and Fault is also supplying Staag, and for the same reason, staag can't turn on Fault either. This coincides into a forever war stalemate.

2.95: current state of war

Through an explosive cascade of allys fighting allies fighting allies. Nobody can stop the war. Nobody knows who's fighting who, and why. Decade, or was it centuries, the war has been going on. Nobody knows, and nobody cares. They can't exactly just stop fighting. And since there's nothing to do besides fight at the front, that's what they do. Miles of intricate trenches cover the war torn landscape. Piles of corpses line the streets of what's left of cities. Soem has become a land of war, and death, and plague. And there's nothing that can stop it.

Glossary:

"biomech" — something that was technically a human, or human strata, but is so biologically altered and ciborgy, that they should be considered something else.

classes:

1. "denizen of rot"

a crazy "biomech" called a "denizen of rot". that basically pumpes out its body fat through implanted machines, to act as built in flame-throughers. (essentially). body fat = 0 cost. Other flammable gasses = very expensive when bought in masses. Mainly used by Fault, although Staag has a similar faction called a "crusader of rot", which is the same thing, but instead of human strata, they usually use obese pigs, or cows. But, in both types, they cover them in foul mud, to take away the smell of burning fat (which smells like cooked meat), so dogs, or other vicious meat eaters do not get attracted.

Why it makes sense: body fat as fuel is zero cost, self-replenishing if fed enough. overpopulation means bodies are cheap. strata are already harvested for resources.