K.O.D
No lights please
No one is sure how it began but the lands of Marlin have come face to face with death itself and the struggle for survival is all too real. four years ago a ship ran aground near a farming village, or at least that's what the scouts reported. within a day the town had fallen to the ships crew, who had become undead somehow while out at sea. survivors from the town ran to the nearby Shina military outpost which quickly found themselves under assault by the nearly 500 inhabitants of the town. Reinforcements were called to help the thirty six men stationed there but by the time they arrived only seven men remained alive, along with four survivors from the town. they had cut down nearly fourty of the dead but it seemed to be for naught as their fallen comrades soon joined the hordes and they were forced to climb to the roof of the tower and cut down the ladder. they fired at the hordes until they ran out of arrows but only eight more had fallen when the Calvary arrived. two hundred knights in plate armor and on horseback rode into the hordes and cut them down with minimal losses.
Only three days later a second boat washed ashore nearly four hundred miles south. rumors of the destroyed village had spread and as such the small city nearby was quick to deploy their guards to the crash site. This smaller crewed vessel also contained undead but the two dozen guardsman outnumbered the undead nearly three to one. they were dispatched but a fatal mistake was made and one guard was wounded. The city of blackwall loved their guards and took good care of them, so they were quick to bring the wounded guard in to try and help him. he was placed in a hospital and after nearly half an hour he rose again with plenty of sick and sleeping people to feed on. the entire hospital fell in minutes and the dead began to spread throughout the city. by the time the guards had been mustered and alarms raised the dead had killed and converted hundreds. in one night the city of blackwall fell, its mayor gave the orders to seal the doors of the gate assuming they were under attack, only to die before the order could be given to open the gates again.
After a month had passed two more boats arrived along the eastern coast and the king of marlin sent scouts to check on the silent city of blackwell. only one of the three would return speaking of a city completely full of walking corpses that would feed upon any who lived and breathed. horrified the king ordered word be sent to every city in all of the nation. by the time riders set out with word for the east they were met with fleeing refugees. nearly five more villages, towns and cities had been struck by the walking corpses, one of which was silvervale, a city with a population of half a million. the walking corpses managed to wash through the massive densely populated city in two days and while its lack of walls allowed for many civilians to escape the horde, it also allowed them to spread outwards into the surrounding farms and settlements. upon hearing his riders return reports the king of marlin ordered his armies be mustered and he marched his forces east to stem the hordes.
The kings army was grossly underestimating their threat and his force of 70,000 men were met by wave after wave of undead numbering in the millions. Seeing the massive disadvantage the king ordered his forces to fall back and form a defensive line while simultaneously sending word back to the queen to institute a draft throughout all of Marlin. with all reserve forces and guards to be called in from all across the nation to line the eastern front and fortify it. Three years have passed and with each year the army was pushed further back by the dead, and each year a new batch of enlisted and drafted soldiers arrives. many have taken to calling it the grinder line as men and women, both living and dead are ground down into non-existance.
Yet what seemed like a hopeless scenario has just gotten worse, but a light has come seen far away at the end of the tunnel. The Gates of Blackwall have fallen and from its depths came new kinds of dead that upended the understanding of the enemy that the kingdom of Marlin had lost so many to achieve. Yet it also revealed the existence of what have been dubbed Dead Lords. undead whose presence has a benificial effect on the dead making them more alert and capable, these dead lords also seem able to command the undead without words and they possess a cold tactical intelligence, however the king and his elite members discovered that upon killing a dead lord all undead within a certain radius would become sluggish and mindless. sadly the king made this discovery at the cost of his life. however it may well be the discovery that saves humanity.
throughout marlin there have always been those with special talants. A man who could light his sword ablaze with a flick of his wrist, a young lady who could electrify targets fatally with a touch, a toddler who could throw fully grown men with its tantrums. these are the adepts, those born with unnatural abilities. while there has never been an adept powerful enough to pose much of a threat to the kingdom a team of them banding together could indeed be a terrible thing. as such the Queen of marlin had long since come up with a solution, the Garden, an orphanage run by the wisest of nannies and butlers, and guarded by elite soldiers. Here Adepts were trained, educated, and raised to be loyal to the crown, before being released into the population as hidden sleeper agents. Seeing the opportunity she had been awaiting she called upon her hidden adept agents and has put together an elite task force with the purpose of eliminating the dead lords, while ordering the armies to hold position until the dead begin to weaken and only then will the armies advance. however the holding of position is a costly maneuver, every day that passes hundreds of troops fall. will the queens adept soldiers be capable of felling the undead leadership and lead humanity to victory? or will Marlins last stand be a long , grueling , and inevitably futile struggle?
Last edited:
