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Witness to Ruin

What is WtR?

WtR or Witness to Ruin is a world building project of mine that contains different stories and characters that all take place within the same world. It's a collection of all my favorite tropes, ideas, and research in a (mostly) realistic story. The main story follows James, Nick, and Myra before branching off into endless other smaller stories with different characters.


How does the world work?

The state of the WtR universe depends when and where the character/story takes place. You'll find more canon "rules" listed in a seperate section. However, here are a few examples of how a characters world may differ from another.

Character 1 lives in Halston and travels alone in year 9. They have constant risk of other survivors or infected finding them. pre-bomb food is expired and they must find other options that are not mammal meat. Their city is destroyed but doesn't require much knowledge to explore.

Character 2 lives in Charlston Bay and travels with a small group in year 14. Infected is not a high risk but drowning, starvation, and other surviors are. Food is scarce but fish are an option. Most of the city is flooded and inaccessable from the ground, traveling by rooftop and bridges while needing some knowledge of where you're going.

Character 3 lives at Northview uni with their roomate in year 1. Infected are a possiblity but other surviors are a higher risk. Pre-bomb food is still in edible and can be found around the campus. The campus and dorms are still intact and don't require much knowledge to explore.


The "rules"

WtR has a few structural rules in place that help the lore and world-building stay consistent and reasonable to my standards.

  • Little to no (mammal) meat.

    Mammals are no longer safe to eat as there's no way to tell if they're infected until it's too late. Even a "safe" looking deer could have been infected the day before. Most people turn to seafood, reptiles, or birds for meat. Though there may be some cases where mammal is the only option, or you can guarantee no contamination.

  • Infected do not mutate into horrid creatures.

    Infected must stay realistic! They are still living beings and can die in any way they would have prior to infection. Blood loss, starvation, and other diseases are still a possibility. Infected are not undead; they are humans/animals that are infected with a virus.

  • No government past year 3.

    The government presence fades by the end of year 2 and is gone completely by year 3. This does not apply to former military personnel. Military items, such as weapons and clothing, can still be found. Pre-bomb broadcasts were the last official message from the government. The whereabouts of the president and his members are unknown. Presumed dead. However, in Halston, Myra and some members of the AAC control most of northern Halston.

  • There is no cure.

    There is no cure for NL-3, nor is one expected in the foreseeable future. Both of the real viruses that inspired NL-3 have treatments, but developing one in the current world would be nearly impossible, especially as the virus continues to mutate over the years. The lab where NL-3 was created and all the reccords were destroyed in the bombs.

  • There is little to no power past year 1.

    After the first few days post bombs, most power plants were left unattended and quickly shut down. However, a few very rare exceptions would be solar panels or hydro-powered dams, though these are unlikely. The AAC is one of these very rare exceptions, having a few solar panels on the roof that they stole over time from different parts of Georgia.

Timeline

Infection to bombs:

3 months in the lab pre-outbreak.

4 months between outbreak and quarantine.

4 months of voluntary quarantine.

6 months mandanted quarantine.

1 month of of emergency evacuation to safe zones.

3 months in safe zones.

3 days of bombs

Camp 111 to highgate:

4 months exploring Halston.

around a week of exploring the Terrenwood Forest.

another week of returning to Halston.

a few days of travel before finding Highgate.


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What inspired WtR?

While the majority of WtR was inspired by TLOU (The Last Of Us) games and The Walking Dead show, some parts are influenced by other games, shows, and movies I like!

  • The Last of Us
  • Days Gone
  • The Walking Dead
  • Z Nation
  • Project Zomboid
  • The Fallout games

TLOU inspired many of the locations in WtR. Halston, Charlston Bay, Northview uni, they're all heavily inspired by the different chapters of TLOU games.