Dwellers
The Dwellers history is interwoven with the story of Emer
The Black, Asias legendary pirate.
Emer
first gained notoriety by capturing a Chinese icebreaker and convincing
its crew to accept him as their leader. In the following years,
his ship was often seen in the North Pacific Sea from the Bering
Strait to Hawaii, menacing passing ships and giving them the choice
of being sunk or following him. His navy soon consisted of dozens
of ships, operating from a hidden base somewhere on the Chinese
coast.
Near
this port, Emer built a stronghold in an abandoned sulphur mine.
He had himself declared emperor and ordered his workers to dig
deeper and deeper into the ground to expand his underground empire.
A vast network of tunnels was created, many miles long, connecting
halls and caverns where his workers and soldiers lived. Emer never
returned to the sea; instead, he had his workers excavate vast
underground cities and palaces. He became pale, fat and swollen,
his spongy, white skin no longer hiding the veins through which
his blood pulsated. Emer sent his underlings on raids to the surface,
where they looked for tools, supplies and prisoners. Those of
the prisoners that were not fit for any work were given to the
workers as food. Thus the Dwellers nation grew before the
Day of the Wind.
Each
week, we shall celebrate the Feast. On this day, we all are equal.
The workers, the soldiers, the officials. On this day, we shall
receive our presents from the emperor.
-Dwellers daily prayer
When
Americas rockets struck China, the hour of the Dwellers
had come. Many of the survivors of the strikes joined Emers
empire. The immense influx of workers and soldiers let the Empire
grow beyond the wildest imagination, and soon it reached from
the Gobi desert to Vietnam, from Persia to Japan. By that time,
Emer had fathered a number of sons and daughters who along with
their various mothers formed the Royal Family. Emer was rarely
seen by anyone outside of his family, exerting his power through
members of the Family. An incestuous breeding program decreed
by the emperor started to weaken both the Royal Family and the
workers, and it was constantly attempted to inject fresh blood
into the Dwellers limited gene pool.
The
Royal Family, Rit-Min, has become a rotten nest of schemes, hatred,
violence and constant fear of the mysterious Visors. Emer himself
has receded into the innermost sanctum of his underground palace
to further his genetic studies and has by all accords disappeared
completely. There are rumours of screams that echo through the
hallways of the palace, and of workers who went near the palace
only to disappear without a trace.
These
days, actual government duties are carried out by a secretive
cast of officials who call themselves Sons of Heaven.
They carry out the necessary expansions of the underground cities
and work on plans for the invasions of the territories to the
North and to the West; however, they rarely act in unison and
lack the authority to carry through their ambitious schemes.
The armys ranks are filled through an extensive breeding
program that tries to combine the best genes from the strongest
workers and the most intelligent officials. The Sons of
Light are the elite of the army; they guard the empires
entrances on the surface and the gates of the underground palace.
Some have said that these soldiers are no longer human but are
genetically bred fighting machines. In contrast to the regular
soldiers, these deadly fighters wear precious armour reminiscent
of more glorious times in Chinas past.
Our
life is nothing. The community is everything. And our community
must be guarded from the light.
-Oath of the Sons of Light
The
working class is generally content with their fate which
is not entirely without a reason, since their food contains additives
designed to reduce all functions of the brain that are not absolutely
necessary for their jobs. Most workers are no longer able to express
their thoughts in spoken words if they have any thoughts
of their own at all.
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