While I was on my way getting past a pile of rubble for a routine scavenge, I was roped into becoming audience to a scene I will never be able to forget in this lifetime. The sight of a child, a teenager housed in a stripe patterned sweater and a pair of high cut Chuck Taylor shoes eating a fellow survivor she just shot transpired right before me. It was not a zombie, nor was it a human being. The girl was something else.
When that moment unfolded right in front of my eyes, I immediately knew what pure evil was like. I've always been morally ambiguous, in fact, I despised the idea of morals and its humanness, one could say. However, when I saw everything that happened that night by the outskirts of Dillimore— That's how I knew what actual evil was like. There was no humanity, no soul, no conscience.
— Journal, circa 2021
Beneath The Bed
Everybody knows the story about the Chimera. Vile beings that function in the likeness of parasites— feeding off on anything just to satisfy their unquenchable hunger and thirst, delivering nothing but violence and havoc. Chaotic creatures that pursue disorder and discourse just for the sake of it— or for revenge and/or self interest. But, despite many of these abhorrent traits that the Chimera are most known for, it's important to highlight the fact that not every Chimera are alike. The Chimera has its own variations of culture, beliefs, structure/hierarchies and unique traits. Much like humans, a Chimera is very much still a sentient being with its own mind, thoughts and mentalities. One might prefer to substitute their dread with humor and laugh about their curse or be the pessimistic type that abhors everything and refuses to believe in meaning, choosing oblivion at any given chance, never being involved in wars, drama or the opposite.
In post-apocalyptic survivor society, the Chimera are mostly nothing but monsters in children's bonfire stories told to them by their parents in an effort to dissuade them from leaving their camps and/or to urge the youth from leaving secure micro cities such as Scarville. With the absence of the Internet and the World Wide Web post outbreak, any shred of proof about the Chimera's existence are barriered from transpiring into public knowledge. Only the San Andreas National Guard and its Bionics as well as the former employees of Elysium Pharmaceuticals and its cronies remain truly aware of the Chimera's presence, but even at the behest of their capacities, a regular human survivor would simply laugh at the claim or deem it as nothing more than a myth created to scare kids until one is brought right in front of them.
Unbeknownst to the general public, the Chimera are constantly on motion in secrecy, and while these creatures hold a significantly greater prowess over their human or Bionic counterparts, their curse forces them to constantly be in some sort of a masquerade to pursue a longer lifespan. They blend in with normal, day-to-day post apocalyptic society as bandits, nomads or assimilate in normal human camps. They are completely aware that the exposure of their nature means the signing of their own death sentences and that if the true existence of the Chimera becomes embedded deep in public knowledge, the blow back towards noteworthy Chimera societies/groups will be heavy. This will spark an all out deadly war between the outnumbered Chimera and all of humanity and the Bionics, which the Chimera know, will conclude in their own genocide.
Genealogical Variations
Project: Revenant was a military project orchestrated by the USSR later sustained by China that encompassed the creation of biological warfare weapons. This included the antedecent virus, the virus strain that ravaged the entire planet as well as the deadlier, hunter type variations of the Chimera: the Voids and the Revenants. Elysium Labs under the mandate of Dr. Anna Strylsko, took on the responsibility of genetically engineering humans into becoming a deadlier type of Chimera with the purpose of hunting down and murdering survivors to ensure the fall of the United States. Under the Genesis sector— The first batch of these Chimera were subsequently produced. These creatures turned out to be successful hunters, weeding out survivors mercilessly and ruthlessly.
Children of the Revenant:
Under the supervision of Genesis Labs, one of Elysium's facility sectors, were the Chimera produced as intellectually superior Chimera destined to trick and bait large groups of remaining survivors for the hunter type Chimera to kill. This genealogy of the Chimera were designed to be much more charismatic, persuasive and deceptive. With the genius of Dr. Yuri Kostek, genealogical adjustments in the DNA that were in connection with psychology were done. Contrastingly, the Chimera that were directly produced from Genesis were unable to equal that of those created under Dr. Anna Strylsko. Vice versa, the hunter type variation also did not match the intellectual capacity of those created in Genesis Labs.
The project heads of these two labs were then placed in scrutiny by the DEA placing the fate of Elysium Pharmaceuticals in jeopardy. This prompted the scientists to issue a halt to all operations, and the destruction of all evidence to swindle away from the DEA's scope. This also included the killing of all Chimera made from these labs, which ultimately sparked a civil war within Strylsko's sector of Chimera. These events caused the death of many Chimera, but those from both labs that survived came to form a close alliance with one another. Those that were created under Strylsko came to emerge as the Revenants and those under Kostek came to be known as the Children of the Void.
Children of the Sanctuary:
An orphan sect of Chimera also came to existence under the Children of Sanctuary. These Chimera were, if anything, the predecessors of every Chimera that had ever emerged. Sanctuarymen comprised a sizable amount of former soldiers, scientists, doctors, and virologists. While experimenting their own children in labs in an effort to create the Bionics— as with most experiments; most turned out to be utter failures which prompted the creation of the first ever Chimera. Weak minded and puny children rendered incapable to withstand the mental and physical stress the experiments brought about became the first Chimera to have ever existed in the planet. However, despite being the antediluvians of their breed, they were generally weaker in comparison to their Project: Revenant kin.
Due to their weakness, most of these sanctuary/orphan Chimera are frequently killed by either those created under Revenant, or by the Children of Sanctuary themselves. While weak, the potential of an Orphan becoming an Elder in a short amount of time is absolute. Orphan Chimera, being the first predecessors and the antediluvians of all living Chimera in the planet, are equipped with chimeric mutagens that are way more raw compared to their Elysium deviants. An Orphan Chimera may also become way more powerful than a Void or a Revenant due to this raw connection with the first of the chimeric mutagens, and are able to retain their human appearances and assimilate into human societies with relative ease.
The Nightwalkers:
A hybrid of an Elysium kin and those that were manufactured within the Sanctuary came to emerge as well. These were former Orphans that have been infused with both the chimeric mutagens researched by Elysium and those of the Sanctuarymen. They are, in a way, a fair mix of both an Orphan and a non Orphan. The Nightwalkers were an accidental creation, much like the chimeric race itself. Nonetheless, they were extremely predatory, sparing nothing — not even their own Chimera brethren. They came into existence after a small group of researchers from Elysium and the Sanctuary took upon the goal of curing the Chimera by attempting to reverse the T-virus via genetic engineering after escaping the catastrophic events, such as the civil war and the Bionic raid in Area 69, that had unfolded within their respective facilities.
These scientists called it Project: Antithesis. Many trials and experiments were done to reverse the effects of the mutation to little avail. Several techniques with the inclusion of commonly risky ones were placed in motion, and despite of the intellectual capacity of these men and women — failure became a recurrent consequence. They also lacked the resources during the experiments, and sanitation was abhorrently poor as a result. Having been placed in the premise of needing to depend on leftover equipment from their previous labs, and the general lack of arsenal to concoct the cure — the group churned towards desperate strategies.
This desperation eventually led to the ultimate demise and destruction of the sub project. Hans Boetticher — the project's lead facilitator called upon the hazardous idea of blending in the mutagens of a Revenant and the Void with the DNA of a powerful Orphan, which was the test subject, in order to develop a 100% tolerance and immunity from the mutation. The researchers genetically engineered the T-virus to work in a way that would ease the test subject's immune system's capacity to recognize the virus as well — expecting the immune system to attack the T-virus and suppress it while nature did its part in reversing the chimeric mutation. This ultimately turned out to be their biggest failure, and a Nightwalker spawned from the gurney.
PA-052 was the first Nightwalker that had ever emerged, and all those that belong to the lineage descend from his bloodline. A Nightwalker's mutagens and his virus' potency enabled him to turn a human or a Bionic into one of his own with a single bite, if the victim is left alive for more than an hour. A fast paced descent to madness, the rapid growth of muscle fibers and the cranium size and the gushing of blood from their eyes from which the aftermath leaves the whole eyeball red torments those unfortunate enough to have survived a bite from a Nightwalker. These vile creatures do not adhere to the Convention, nor do they respect the Inconnu for their status in the chimeric society — and are known to clash with everybody, both Orphan and non Orphan, just to ensure its own survival.
Appearance & Bodily Reactions
Chimera of Project Revenant:
Most Chimera, after the experiments, retained their humanoid structure and build. However, there were minor changes to their physique depending on the lab that they were genetically engineered upon. For instance, those under the Strylsko would have caused an average individual to become muscular and with slightly longer arms to support their original purpose as hunters and killers. Whereas, those under the supervision of Kostek retained their original bodies and an increased brain and cranium size.
The eyes of a Chimera manufactured under Project: Revenant are generally red due to an effort in the maximization and the enhancement of their vision which subsequently turned out to be a failure. Genes in their DNA in direct correlation to the color of the eye was modified due to its necessity in polishing the Revenant Chimera's vision. Many efforts were made to eliminate the red hue in the eyes but all of them subsequently turned out to be failures. This became the Revenant Chimera's greatest weakness as the red eyes immediately gave away their true, innate nature.
The skin of the Revenant Chimera resembled that of a body in rigor mortis, as these beings are technically semi dead after most of their blood were suctioned and replaced with modified DNA in an effort to completely diminish blood pressure. The processes in the experiments ultimately caused the Revenant Chimera to become incapable of basic human bodily function such as blushing.
Orphan Chimera:
Chimera created under the Children of Sanctuary were unintentional hence these Chimera were more susceptible to having physical defects. Orphan Chimera, otherwise known as misfits in Chimera society, are generally classified as the weaker kind. With that being said, these Chimera resemble humans more and easily assimilate into human survivor groups without being detected. Misfits, unlike most of their stronger kin, emanate more like a regular human with most of their bodily functions retained. These misfits also do not have red eyes but possess the eye color of the undead (bright hazel, uncanny). Unlike their stronger counterparts from Project Revenant, the Orphan Chimera are able to reproduce.
The Nightwalkers:
The Nightwalkers are the results of an accidental crossbreeding between an Orphan and the mutagens of the dominating Revenant & Children of the Void. Hence, their half nature has an Orphan had caused them to retain a convincingly humanoid figure. However, their Elysium blood had also caused their eyes to be extremely bloody — causing the entirety of their eyeballs to be dark red, as if they've been crying out blood for eternity. They also have pale, white skin, as they are technically dead. Male Nightwalkers develop stronger and bigger muscles to double their strength capacity, while female Nightwalkers retain their original human dimensions but transmute a better sense of motion and a faster, seemingly supernatural speed.
Every Chimera, regardless of the sect they belong to — whether it be the Void, the Revenant or the Orphan are all genetically engineered to defy basic aging. Their bodies are equipped with an exquisite immune system, thanks to Strylsko's ingenuity, and are able to reach the age of 500 and above until they finally succumb of old age. While this may seem like a big achievement in the perspective of a regular human, to a Chimera — the necessity to live, struggle and cope for half a millennium becomes a tormenting stretch of experience. Some Chimera, due to their near immortality, will desire suicide but their modified primal instinct will protect the body from being hurt. Hence, it's common for the Chimera to be doused in melancholy, depression and pessimism.
Status Quo & History
The Chimera society in this day and age are mostly dominated by the Inconnu, a chimeric coalition of the Void and the Revenants. Due to their immense power in terms of intellect and physical strength, it is the Inconnu that call the shots within modern chimeric society. The Voids prioritize their worship to a deity and assist in leading the Revenants to bigger hunts and takes, as well as preserve the established chimeric society and most especially the Convention — the Revenants live up to their purpose and decimate survivors and/or weed out misfits, and the Orphans continue to survive and hide their true nature from the Voids, the Revenants, the Bionics and ultimately, humanity. Efforts to assimilate into human societies remain the common goal within these three lineages.
The whole umbrella of the Chimera society is divided into four sections. The Inconnu, are Chimera that adhere to the Convention and the secretive chimeric society. The Insurgents, those that defy the governing Inconnu and refuse to follow the Convention, the Deviants, the lost Chimera, commonly fledglings and Orphans that are unaware of their newfound abilities, and the Undesirables, a chimeric sect that promotes peace and friendship between the Chimera and the Bionics.
The Chimera's most significant rival are the Bionics. The two races have clashed with one another for as long as they've came to exist and there are little to no signs of the war from stopping. Nobody knows what caused the war to take place, but some noteworthy Chimera from the Children of the Void have been advocates for peace with the Bionics. Jacqueline Coiler, an Elder Void became the subject of controversy when she was caught actively making peace talks with a powerful Bionic.
Her philosophy was that if the Bionics and the Chimera worked hand in hand, then an incomparable amount of power would become a reality. A win-win situation with no casualties and a perfect window to dominate over humanity, eliminating the need to live in secrecy and scrutiny. Coiler, breaking the Convention, was subsequently burned alive in a pyre by the enthroned upper echelon of the Children of the Void for her actions.
"How are we any different from those we despise?
I take my dream of perfect stability and comfort to the grave."
— Jacqueline Coiler's last words before being burned alive, circa 2021
Sects
The Inconnu: The Inconnu is a sect of Chimera that adhere to the Convention and are governed by the Inconnu. The Inconnu are known for their big egos and their inclination towards spiritual beliefs. What drives them to sustain their lives is faith, to them — faith is paramount. The ability of a Chimera to raise the dead may also find its progeny in the Inconnu. Some may call it supernatural, dark magic or witchcraft, but nobody other than the Inconnu knows the truth.
Deviants: Stray Chimera, either lost or just mere wanderers that wish to preserve their neutrality. They adhere to nothing but themselves. Deviants are soldiers of neutrality. Peacekeepers, so to say, that seek nothing but settlement and survival. They move in the likeness of regular human survivors and have typically already assimilated into human groups. Within the chimeric society, they adhere to nothing. Not the philosophy of the Insurgents, nor the Convention. Not exactly in oblivion, but they would rather choose unity and equality above all.
Insurgents: These are the rebels of the chimeric society, they abhor the Convention and the Inconnu, seeing them as nothing but power hungry individuals. Insurgents are rebellious Chimera that despise the Inconnu and their ideals above everything. Military oriented and heavily dependent on weapons — the Insurgents have been vocal critics of the Inconnu. Most that comprise the sect of the Insurgents are Orphans, outcasts of the chimeric society, or fledglings that have been mistreated by their Mentors.
Undesirables: Chimera that promote peace between their kind and the Bionics. Most of the Undesirables do not adhere to the Convention nor the governance of the Inconnu, and are commonly allied with Bionics. They adhere to the philosophy of Jacqueline Coiler, an Elder Void that was executed by the Inconnu for advocating peace with powerful Bionics. They are Chimera that had defected to the side of the Bionics and defy the Convention.
A hybrid of an Elysium kin and those that were manufactured within the Sanctuary came to emerge as well. These were former Orphans that have been infused with both the chimeric mutagens researched by Elysium and those of the Sanctuarymen. They are, in a way, a fair mix of both an Orphan and a non Orphan. The Nightwalkers were an accidental creation, much like the chimeric race itself. Nonetheless, they were extremely predatory, sparing nothing — not even their own Chimera brethren. They came into existence after a small group of researchers from Elysium and the Sanctuary took upon the goal of curing the Chimera by attempting to reverse the T-virus via genetic engineering after escaping the catastrophic events, such as the civil war and the Bionic raid in Area 69, that had unfolded within their respective facilities.