Due to the events of the Great Space War, the Earth was a wreck and the Vatican was no different as it had been a primary target, however, an area in Eastern Europe not too far from Constantinople was in relatively good condition. Because of this Pope Sylvatic, moved all of his clergy and the seat of the Pope to it along with the scraps of advanced weaponry in the hopes of repairing it and keeping them in his care. Sylvatic's papacy was one marked by degeneracy of both the sexually deviant and violent nature as he had taken advantage of the lack of technology to hide his sinful ways. The center of Catholicism became no better than a den of prostitutes with daily orgies and a place where Sylatic could invite his detractors so that he could kill them at his own pace and quietly dispose of their bodies. At the time, those who were still faithful to God could only pray for his conversion and hoped something would change since no rebellion against him could succeed because of the advanced weapons of Sylatic's guards.
One day, during the many parties, something caused the explosives in storage to go off. Some say it was God's direct intervention while others say it was an accident caused by drunk partiers or the rats and vermin that were said to have lived in the basements. Regardless, a series of chain reactions and explosions shook the land and the entirety of the Eastern European region became a chemical wasteland that no human could enter. Soon after, since nothing could be done about those who resided in Eastern Europe, a funeral was held in honor of the lost souls, and a new pope was crowned who brought the Church and her people back to her roots and instilled a new age of peace. This age of peace came and went until rumors started circulating about rats who could speak and act like men.
These rumors are thought to be nothing more than scary stories until more people start mysteriously disappearing and being killed. Eventually, physical evidence of the ratmen is brought forward to the Church's authority, and then a live ratman gives himself up so that he could speak to them. This particular ratman told the authorities that he was a normal human being until the explosions went off. Most died, however, others such as Sylvantic, his leadership, and followers were turned into ratmen. Sylvantic allowed this ratman to leave the wasteland to tell them that he was back to reclaim the Church that he thinks is rightfully his. The ratman continued to say that most ratmen aren't allowed to leave the wasteland and that people on the border of the wasteland are kidnapped to be forcefully added to Sylvantic's army. In addition, he said that more ratmen underneath the most important cities of the world have been spying on the Church's most important members.
With this irrefutable evidence, the Church authorities decided to set up defenses along the border of the wasteland and root out the spies, however, on the same day of the ratman's testimony and the days after that, Sylvantic's army and spies assassinated key leaders of the Church and destroyed several settlements. This forced the Church's armies to scramble. After days of struggle, the army managed to push the ratmen armies back to the wasteland and clear out most of them from their cities. Still, after what happened, it is unclear whether or not they'll be able to handle a full-scale invasion, especially since this was just a taste of it, because of the unknown spies that still may remain under their very homes, and the hostility of the wasteland that no normal human can enter without dying.
Church Militant
After Pope Sylvantic's reign, one kingdom boarding Eastern Europe that was once called Germany hundreds of millions of years ago decided to take the remaining advanced weaponry for its own because no government body should hold it, not even the Church. At first, most people trusted them since they had the most people speak out against Sylvantic, but many distrusted them because they had taken justice into their own hands against Sylvantic on several occasions that they didn't always take credit for, and most of their people controlled the military and guard. Regardless of people's worries and support, this kingdom did whatever it wanted and got the chance to do it without pushback after the Great Betrayal. They were the first ones on the frontlines to defend humanity against the ratmen and sacrificed the most. They also were the ones who made defenses around the border separating the lands of ratmen and mankind and boldly made excursions into the wasteland only for their men to die in them.
Because no one could contest its power, the kingdom took whatever it wanted as payment for its help, executed those it considered heretics and traitors, and occupied territories and buildings of importance all in the name of the greater good. They hastened their research into repairing the advanced technology of the past and were said to have used it against the ratmen on the border. Factions within the kingdom started to grow as some opposed what the kingdom had become, others said that they weren't doing enough, and some other groups were in between. Fights broke out between these groups until one day, a similar event to the Great Betrayal happened to this kingdom where a chain of explosions caused by the damage of advanced technology changed the land and its people. The vegetation and wildlife had grown twice as big with some of them being as tall as churches and become poisonous and its people now had green skin, jagged teeth, could eat the fruit that grew from its land, and were twice as physically strong as they were before.
Because of this change and the lands not being as dangerous for normal humans to inhabit, many in the kingdom considered this change a blessing. In addition, their people could now enter the wasteland of Eastern Europe without any effect on them, which only further proved to themselves the validity of their virtue. The kingdom was now named Bernhard and its people were called orcs, named after the humanoid creatures of millennium-old fiction. Many of those in the Church were concerned by this change as the people of Bernhard were also more violent and demanding of them while others were happy that there was now a people able to strike within the ratman-infested wasteland, but at the end of the day, both could agree that this added to the many new changes of the present age and were wondering what else could happen next, especially since those in the Holy Land held the last remnants of the space fairing age.
Separation of the Chosen
All eyes were now on the Holy Land as it held the last remnants of the futuristic past. Materials that were found far from Earth, barely functional tech, and prototype weapons and armor of war were kept far away from the kingdoms of Pope Sylvantic and Bernhard with the reason being that they were researching and recovering the knowledge on how to repair and use them. Both kingdoms agreed to let the territories in the Holy Land do this as long as they agreed to give them access to the fruits of their research once it was usable and they did agree though they secretly had an area where they kept the most destructive and volatile materials and tech for themselves for the safety of everyone in the world. After the transformation of Pope Sylvantic's Eastern Europe and the kingdom of Bernhard, the Holy Land kept their special possessions even closer than before even as the orcs of Bernard demanded the results of their research and the weapons they had prototypes of to push back the tides of ratmen and expunge them from wherever they hid in the kingdoms of men. Divisions started to grow among the people as some wanted to give what they had to the orcs out of fear, respect, or the want to protect themselves after two larger kingdoms weren't able to control the objects of the past.
Some in the orc kingdom began to grow violent and sent raiding parties to take what they wanted by force, which was supported by other kingdoms who had allied themselves to them. In addition, Pope Sylvantic's ratmen sent his own forces to steal what they could from under their noses, however, both forces faced considerable pushback since the land was heavily defended by a large portion of the Church's armies that still supported the Holy Land territories and right to decide what they wanted to do. One faction within the Holy Land had enough of the conflict and betrayed the others. They sent their forces to aid the orcs and during the conflict, what happened twice before happened again as the volatile materials and tech caused a chain reaction of explosions throughout the land. Unlike the ratmen, but just like the orcs, the people and environment in the Holy Land changed in different ways.
The people who had turned on their own now had red eyes, long ears, and gray or light blue skin. Their lands were now marshlands with trees and animals that could seemingly reach the skies. They could now wield dark magics that allowed them to slip into shadows, conjure fog, and spew acidic liquids from the palms of their hands. Because of these things and their actions, they became known as the dark elves, and their kingdom was named Abaddon. The weight of their sins caused many of them to repent and hundreds of their people enlisted in the army as penance and many more would enlist to fight once it was discovered that the dark elves could walk harmlessly in the wasteland of Eastern Europe.
Those who dwelt in the most conservative of the Holy Land gained sharp ears and golden eyes and skin. The sun seemed to shine longer in their lands and fruits, vegetables, wildlife, and life in general lived longer and were more abundant. Some of the people here could wield fire, beams of light that could blind and melt metal, and the light from their hands could heal almost any sickness or wound. These people became known as the high elves and their kingdom was named Oron. As it was before, the lands of the kingdom of Oron were the center of politics, knowledge, and best-kept secrets and treasures in the Holy Land. Not many of their number were involved in the Church's military and those who were became generals and soldiers of renown.
In stark contrast to their brothers, there is one section of the Holy Land where the ruins of the past have been completely erased and nothing but forests remain. It's almost as if God had reset the area to its original beauty since not one bit of the old world was left. The people here now had slightly brown skin, circular long ears, and shades of brown eyes. They could wield the wind and nature followed their every command. These people became known as the wood elves and their kingdom was called Matias. Like in the past, they acted separately from their brothers and compromisers who stayed out of politics and conflicts that didn't directly affect them nor influenced events that were small in scale. They made homes out of nature and hunted evil men and ratmen wherever they hid.
All the kingdoms of the Holy Land considered themselves blessed because of what they obtained. Even the kingdom of Abaddon considered themselves blessed in that their punishment brought most of them to repentance. Now that every bit of the past's technology and foreign materials obtained during it are gone, there is no going back to the space fairing days of the past anytime soon, which in itself was also considered a blessing by most as humanity moved forward into an uncertain future no longer worried about the remnants of the past.
Banishment of the Blasphemeriers
Because most of Earth's cities were in ruins, criminals were either executed immediately or in public, or put in the most basic of prisons. After the ratmen, orcs, and elves became a concern, prison reform and updating were pushed to the side to deal with the new present problems. Some crimes were now ignored while others would only result in empty warnings, slaps on the wrist, and minor debts to be paid in either labor, currency, or materials. In kingdoms where law enforcement was stricter, hands would be cut off, executions were more common, there were public beatings, or a criminal would be disallowed from working within a given region that knew of their name and crimes. Banishing people would be a common punishment, especially when the prisons became full.
Since the banished had nowhere to go, they would wander the lands and make their homes in nature, or more likely, start again in a different kingdom. Those who were stuck in their criminal ways would not stay too long in foreign lands or be killed by the law or rivals. Eventually, those who could live nowhere because they were banished from most safe places wandered out to distant lands. People would report that they saw these people walk across bridges of ice or dirt and into the fog in the direction of what was called the Americas hundreds of millions of years ago or the North and South Poles. These same bridges would disappear within hours as if the entire event was a dream, however, it is also reported that beastly men would walk from these fog-covered bridges and back into their home territory.
There were reports of oxen with the bodies of men, women that had the lower half of a serpent, men with the limbs of goats, and women that had the bodies of horses just to name a few. To the witnesses, it seemed as if the creatures of ancient Earth folklore had come to life. These beastmen would either attack their homes, leave them alone, or slaughter a nearby undefended village down to the last animal and take whatever weapons, armor, and food it had. It is only thanks to those who were strong and brave enough to face these beasts that undisputable physical evidence was obtained so that the authorities would take this threat seriously. Theories and speculation started to run rampant from there.
Were these people really the criminals who walked across the mysterious bridges and into the fog? Was this a result of some heretical or heathen ritual or did these people transform for a similar reason as the ratmen, orcs, and elves? At this present moment, no one can tell for certain. The only certain thing is that these times are unprecedented and there is seemingly no end to the challenges to God's Church and her faithful.
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