THE MOVEMENT

“It took a miracle to bring us all together, but that’s what this man was all about. Miracles.”

- Campfire tale of the Fallen God

A lifetime ago, on the eastern fringes of the Far Desert, the wasteland was a more dangerous place. In the shadow of ruined cities and burned-out monuments of industry, a race of mutant giants known as “mongoliants” rose to power. Cold-blooded killers, savages, and man-eaters, these hideously deformed ogres used brute strength to conquer the scattered settlements of other wasteland inhabitants. Ruled by a self-styled “emperor”, the mongoliants enslaved many communities and turned their people towards the building of an Empire. Cruelty and slaughter became hallmarks of this savage nation, the bones of humans and mutants providing the building materials for fortresses and roads, their blood and tears serving as mortar. In the face of the mongoliants’ power and numbers most communities were crushed outright, with only a few managing to avoid discovery on the fringes of their lands, hiding in caves or in forgotten valleys littering the desert. Even these were unable to affect what was happening around them, as they were divided by race, creed, and color.

It was in this time of tyranny and fear that the people cried out to the heavens for a hero, someone who would come and deliver them from the mongoliant threat. Remarkably, the heavens responded. One night a brilliant comet tore through the sky, burning through the oppressive darkness of the night like a ray of crimson wrath. Several communities in the desert noticed the star fall; some considered it an omen of trouble, of turmoil and great trials to come, but at least one saw in it a sign that the heavens had answered their prayers. This tribe of “star-watchers” immediately sent a scouting party into the wilderness to locate the fallen comet and investigate.

What they found on reaching the site - deep in a forgotten corner of the desert - was something they did not expect. A massive metallic “beast” had apparently fallen to earth, carving up miles of desert terrain, leaving a broad canyon, at the bottom of which it lay. They could see “angelic beings” around the wreckage in numbers, apparently examining their craft for damage. On approaching the scouts were spotted… but to their surprise they came under fire! These were no saviors - these were enemies from the stars!

THE REALITY

The destitute tribals had not found the answer to their prayers, but rather advanced humans whose spacecraft, the “Mayflower”, had crashed to the Earth.

During the time of the Ancients, the Mayflower was a newly-constructed transport ship originally intended to take colonists to the asteroid colonies of the Kuyper Belt. The enormous ship was fitted with cryogenic-sleep facilities for its complement of crew and colonists for the voyage, but sometime after entering orbit (but before engaging its ion drives) there was a major malfunction. Shockwaves from nuclear detonations in space as a result of the unexpected outbreak of the Final War paralyzed the ship, shutting down her power, and entombing her passengers in their icy holds indefinitely.

Hundreds of years later, as the Mayflower’s orbit began to decay, drawing it closer and closer to Earth, automated alarms went off. Passengers on several levels were awakened, while others, stuck in malfunctioning sleep-tubes, were trapped. Those that awoke struggled to find out what was going on (they’d been frozen before leaving Earth, and thus knew nothing of the Fall), attempting to reach the control center to learn more of their fates.

Unbelievably, however, a small but determined faction of colonists aboard the ship took advantage of the chaos to seize control. By chance a band of former convicts and lifers, paroled from Earth’s worst prisons in a program to colonize the mining stations of the asteroid belt, were among the first to awaken. Their leader led a mutiny, attempting to wrest control of the Mayflower from its small military complement. They succeeded, rounding up all but one member of the soldier detachment sent with the ship to keep the convicts in line. Several of these were murdered in cold blood in petty acts of revenge. But, as the ship entered the atmosphere, the mutineers were unable to prevent the inevitable. In the panic, the ship’s former captain somehow managed to regain control of the ship just long enough to eject the part of the vessel containing the convicts - and one soldier who found himself trapped with them.

The Mayflower’s automated systems allowed the ejected portion of the ship to land relatively unharmed somewhere in the Michigan wasteland. Emerging from the wreckage, the soldier who’d been accidentally ejected with the convicts managed to escape, just before the vengeful convicts found him. He slipped away under the cover of night, plunging headfirst into a world that was drastically different than the one he’d left centuries ago.

This former soldier would come to be known as the “Fallen God” by the people of the wasteland. First motivated by survival, and then by discovery (he wanted to learn what had happened to his planet in the Fall), he wandered the desert and the ruins of old towns, taking in what must have been a mind shattering revelation - that the familiar Earth was gone. But in time he managed to recover from his injuries and shock, locate weapons and armor, and eventually find people.

The people he first came into contact with not humans, but mutants. They were members of the same tribe that had sent scouts to investigate the “fallen star”, but his sudden appearance so soon after the crash (and following the disappearance of their scouting party) left the tribe divided. Some believed he was a “god” sent from the stars to make things right, while others believed he was responsible for the deaths of their brave warriors.

The Fallen God quickly surmised that the tribe’s scouts had found the wreck of the Mayflower, and had most likely been captured by the convicts, who were no doubt interrogating the tribals about the condition of Earth - and laughing at the irony of civilization turned on its head. The Fallen God warned the people of the danger of the convicts (who now had the resources of the entire ship at their disposal, including lasers and explosives), but they had bigger problems - the Mongoliant Empire. A patrol from the Empire’s frontier would certainly be sent to investigate the fallen star, and if this “fallen angel” was discovered among them, they would suffer greatly. After learning more about these “mongoliants”, the Fallen God agreed to help the people fight if the monsters came.

The Fallen God led a successful ambush against the mongoliants, slaughtering all but a handful who fled back the way they came. The Fallen God returned to a surprising welcome. It had been nothing to him,

simply falling back on his military training, but to the villagers he had done the impossible, defeating the mongoliants in open battle. He was immediately celebrated as a hero, and hailed as a “savior”.

Emboldened, many of the young of the tribe wanted to march out and take on the Mongoliant Empire head-to-head but the Fallen God, and their elders, warned against it. But believing he had truly been sent to save them, the elders propositioned the Fallen God. If he could venture out into the wasteland and build an alliance of tribes, together they would be unstoppable. They would not only be able to topple the mongoliant tyranny, they could also help the Fallen God return to the Mayflower to face his nemesis - the convict leader - and put right his injustices.

The Fallen God accepted the challenge, leaving the village to search for other tribes willing to join the cause. According to legend he made friends with the self-titled “King of Terminals”, a savage mutant living in an old automated dome that once served as an amusement park, recreating Louis Carroll’s Through The Looking Glass. He had to do battle with the robotic “Red Queen”, and negotiate a peace with the terminal tribe’s quixotic leader, who styled himself after the “Mad Hatter”.

He went on to discover a group of peaceful people living in an old biodome research station in the wasteland, a tribe who followed a druidic, nature worshipping path. He managed to secure their allegiance by performing a great task, venturing into the bowels of their ancient biodome to repair its “miraculously” unending water source. Their future saved, they committed themselves to the Fallen God’s cause as well.

Despite his efforts, the Fallen God knew all that he had was a loose collection of primitive peoples who, though brave, were no match for the convicts of the Mayflower. He was ready to give up, when one of the elders of the biodome druids related to him a legend of his people. This legend spoke of a great “creature sheathed in metallic armor”, which stories claimed still lay, sleeping, at the heart of a nearby swamp. The Fallen God ascertained from details gleaned from the storyteller that this “creature” was in fact an ancient war droid. Knowing that having such a powerful machine on his side could mean the difference between victory and defeat, he set out to find it, and if possible, reactivate it.

The journey to the swamp was full of danger and trials of its own. When he did finally discover the war droid at the heart of the swamp, he expected to find it lifeless and in need of repair; he was surprised when the thing rose in his presence and addressed him. Remarkably the thing had developed intelligence since the time of the Fall, though in a dark and brooding sort of way. Having seen the human race extinguish itself in a fiery flash, and having watched their survivors descend into savagery, it was pessimistic about the idea of helping man’s mutant descendants, and even more skeptical about why it should even bother leaving its miserable, swampy abode.

The Fallen God managed to convince the war droid to assist in the coming battle by appealing to the war droid’s sense of logic. He convinced it that where it lay, in the swamp, it no longer served a purpose. Once designed for war, and wholesale destruction, its self-imposed exile made no sense. Boldly, he proposed that the war droid give itself a new purpose, to help man instead of killing him, and to protect his fragile descendants instead of disdaining them.

Once accomplished, the Fallen God returned to the village of the star-watchers to find that they had been attacked by the mongoliants while he‘d been gone, their people marched off to work in the mongoliant mines. The time for war had come, and without delay he and the allied army of tribes he’d

built marched on the mongoliant frontier. Several decisive engagements were played out against the mongoliants, battles fought in the open desert, in the hill country, and in the ruins of the city of Cadillac, which had since become the mongoliant “capital”. The Fallen God himself killed the mongoliant “Emperor” in single combat during the last battle, putting an end to the mongoliant power once and for all.

With the mongoliants defeated and their vast legions of slaves freed, the Fallen God turned his attention to the Mayflower. Marching his followers across the desert once more, they located the wreck of the ancient ship and its well-armed defenders. Unlike the barbaric mongoliants, the castaways of the Mayflower were well-coordinated, and ultimately the Fallen God had to leave his army outside to tie down the defenders while he and a select few infiltrated within. In due course they managed to locate the convict’s leader and, in yet another heroic battle, put him to the sword as well.

When all was said and done, the tribes of the wasteland celebrated, but the Fallen God slipped once more into quiet brooding. After a few weeks, he came before the elders of the combined tribes and addressed them as one. In his short time with them he had learned much of the world and its new inhabitants, and had in turn taught them of the past, the Ancients, and how things used to be. He had instilled them with a belief that their differences and diversity were not weaknesses, but strengths, and that united they were a force far more powerful than alone. He had done all he could to help them, and they had repaid the favor in helping him destroy the people who had killed his friends. He would leave, return to the desert, and help others elsewhere. He charged them with only one task - to never forget what he had taught them, and to use it for good.

SINCE THEN…

The Fallen God left long ago, never to return. No one knows what happened to him, if he died out there, if he ascended once more into heaven, or if he still wanders the wasteland helping those in need. Many who met him spent their lives trying to understand why he left and where he may have gone, but since then most others have come to forget those details, and instead focus on preserving his message.

The Fallen God gave the people of the wasteland hope, not only to overcome enemies and oppression, but hope of working together and enjoying true, lasting peace. His followers, who call themselves “the Movement”, work tirelessly to spread that hope. The Movement’s followers are active in missionary work, community betterment, and ridding the wasteland of raiders, marauding monsters, and enemies who threaten their way of life. Movement agents are often active as adventurers as well, volunteering to aid villages that need someone skilled to help rid them of their troubles.