A manufactured virus designed to prevent all medical ailments. / Successful Alpha Virus integration in organisms.
Some humans develop an enhanced sight, sound or touch sense. (only 1 enhanced sensory).
Bile Fog
Moisture rising from the swampland mixed with decaying byproduct.
A thick, chemical haze that obscures visibility and carries the scent of rot; can trigger Neon Rot.
Biological Noise
Sensory interference caused by overlapping biological and atmospheric frequencies.
Obscures all sensory enhancements.
Brittle Snap
Sub-zero crystallization of moisture within clothing and leather gear, causing the item to shatter as if applied with liquid nitrogen.
Belts, scabbards, and boots shatter if flexed or struck. Clothing becomes a glass-like trap; it shatters at the slightest touch.
Hairy Chaos
A symptom specific to Charles caused by facial hair growth.
For Charles, it increases susceptibility to Biological Noise; facial hair acts as a sensory conductor for irritating frequency vibrations.
Heat Leach
A fever from the Alpha Virus fighting off a secondary infection. The outward radiation of thermal energy from a biological or mechanical source into the cold.
Leads to Metabolic Flux and ultimately death if left untreated.
Mauve Flare
The Alpha Virus’s violent reaction to extreme emotional pressure. The host's Irises emit violent violet luminescence.
180-Minute Limit. If the emotion isn't mastered, the venous system ruptures, starting with the eyes, leading to total systemic failure and death.
Metabolic Flux
An inconsistent metabolic rate due to physical overexertion.
Leads to rapid loss of body mass/electrolytes and causes fatigue; the body "burns out" its fuel too fast.
Neon Rot
A terminal condition of biological resistance to the Alpha Virus.
Fatal in Days to Weeks. Triggered by new biological variables (fungi, bacteria, or foreign organisms).
Omega Virus (Batch 13–Ω)
The Omega Virus. A hostile virus promised as a "reset" to the human baseline.
Purports to eradicate the Alpha/Neon Rot; however, it is untested and its true effects are unknown.
Prism Sky
Constant yellow, green, and blue hues lining the sky (resembling an aurora).
Chemical Legacy. The result of 300-year-old biochemical leaks from the "Ages Past."
Winterfire Pneumonia
A lethal, supercooled atmospheric event during the Arctic Lockdown that can cause rapid crystallization of lung tissue.
Contractors face a 100% fatality rate unless kept in sustained "Sauna" heat for 21 days. Tactically, this forces the village into a Winter Lockdown, turning the forge into a literal life-support hub.
Zero Pulse
The clinical silence.
Charles’s ideal biological frequency.
Sound
Viral Hum
Auditory resonance of the Alpha-strain. A constant, background vibration emitted by all organic and "Edited" matter. The ability to hear the frequency of living organisms. High frequency = illness set in. Low frequency = healthy organism. Host must concentrate to determine direction and distance.
The Acoustic Ledger: Silence is extinct. In the field, the host can "hear" a predator’s heartbeat or the high-pitched "hiss" of Neon Rot inside a tree before the bark shows symptoms. Tactically, it acts as a biological sonar, though the "Noise" can be deafening in dense wetlands, requiring the host to manually "tune" their focus to isolate specific threats from the background drone.
Touch
Viral Current
Atmospheric displacement sensitivity. The subject feels the "weight" of the air and the electrical friction of nearby entities.
You feel a predator's "wake" before they strike. In the Wet Freeze, the air feels thick and resistive, like wading through deep water.
Vision
Lattice Sight (Soren)
Perception of ultraviolet gradients and violet viral filaments as a structured, geometric grid.
Perceives the "invisible" violet spectrum and viral density in the atmosphere. The world is a structured map of glowing lines rather than empty space.
Vision
Shiver Sight (Charles)
Perception of atmospheric vortexes, fluid dynamics, and the "flow" of viral density.
The Kinetic View: Charles sees the world as a shifting, liquid-like field. He tracks the way the Bile Fog swirls or how the Viral Current ripples, allowing him to predict where a threat will be based on the "shiver" of the air.