Thriving in the Waste


In the wilderness wastes, between the Rustlands, the Holler, and the flooded Swamplands to the South, survivors of the world have rebuilt. Their world is agrarian. It is of the soil, though radioactive, littered, and filthy, the soil still sews crops. Hands still till the fields. Dweller encampments, Indigo settlements, and Kin dens dot the landscape.

In the decade leading up to the Blackout, Human society crumbled. Thousands of people rejected their dying communities. They fled the world, unable or unwilling to compete in a system that would grind them to dust. They built new systems. Worlds outside the modern zeitgeist, outside authority and infrastructure. These groups were often persecuted by local authorities, forcing them out of contemporary living spaces into harsh, toxic, unlivable conditions; but as they say, ‘Life finds a way’.

Humans living in vast underground networks, blocks of contaminated urban blight, or hovels in the wastes, soon found themselves adapted to the repulsive world around them. They had become biologically initiated into the wonderland. Before the lights went out, in the abandoned subway tunnels of TeraCom City, in the subterranean wastes of CinCi, in the dark tunnels under the boiling Las Vegas streets, in sprawling encampments across LA, and in all the hills and valleys in between, the Dweller was born.

Teenage Mutants

In the years before the collapse, Splicing had become a massive trend with the younger generations. College dropouts were fusing their DNA with select animals, becoming anamorphic versions of themselves overnight. The process was technically outlawed by The United States government under the leadership of Supreme President Bush. Radical youth of the dying world didn’t care about the risk of splicing sickness and greedy entrepreneurs with the right connections didn’t care about the risk of getting caught. During the collapse of contemporary society, the remaining police forces would rarely have the resources to deal with splicers.

Splice-parlors became vile dens of iniquity, not because the process was abhorrent, but because it was dangerous. The administrators of these chemicals didn’t have the qualifications to dose aspirin, let alone splice human-DNA. Splicing sickness was a common issue in bad areas. The cheapest parlors and dens seemed to always pop up in the worst parts of town. The concentrations of Rabid Kin in already dangerous areas led to a societal push to ostracize Kin. Eventually, most Kin found themselves living in urban communities adjacent to Dweller populations.

After the Blackout, Dweller and Kin societies flourished. Unaffected by the ecological devastation and un-harassed by overworked security forces. Nonaggressive Dwellers and Kin were able to spread out and rebuild inside urban population centers. Kin are more common around larger Cities and TeraCom Economic Zones where doses of chemicals needed to operate Splice-Dens can be imported. Dwellers gravitate away from the city centers, where the more devastating environments can give them an unnatural advantage.

When thousands of Humans fled the burning cities. They made a great exodus from Babylon. They rejected the material world that rejected them and they embraced nature. After years of living off the Earth, they would continue to pass down their methods of communicating with the animals. They learned the ways of the abominations, they can’t breathe the smoke, but it speaks to them. The toxic world does not spit them out; it does not embrace them. They walk upon it and heal the Earth. They are penance for Human’s rejection of their true self. Now the Indigo work to correct that mistake.


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Often Indigo, Kin, and Dweller will be living alongside one another. They are silently united by their generational rejection of the world that came before them. In the wastes, Dweller packs and Indigo families will congregate in trade hubs. More commonly than not, trade hubs in the waste are found in the revitalized ruins of cities like CinCi or the subterranean wastes of Las Vegas. Inside more established population centers, diverse settlements like these can still be found hidden beneath the concrete in places like TeraCom City’s Metro Village.

Another thing these marginalized groups have in common is danger. Indigo and Dweller groups often find themselves targeted by nefarious groups like the lich cults who prey upon the loosely defended settlers. While Kin might find themselves kidnapped for rare organ harvesting. The dangers inherent in both these various groups can culminate frequently.

Without the support of any central authorities, Dwellers Kin, Indigo and anyone else in the wastes can have a hard time securing safe homesteads. Inhabitants often forgo permanent living spaces. Neither of these groups are inherently nomadic, constant threats and devastation thrust upon their communities will often force migration.


That’s all we have for this episode. We’ll be back with another report. I’m Mac Henderson on TeraCom Tonight and this has been Choking on Dust. We’ll catch you next time.