Fallen Earth

Fallen Earth is an MMORPG developed by Fallen Earth LLC and Icarus Studios LLC. The game takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting located in and around the American Grand Canyon. The game is currently in its closed beta stage of development, with a release date of September 9, 2009.

Synopsis

Plot
The Fallen Earth story begins in the 21st Century, when the first in a series of natural disasters hit the United States. As Americans struggle to recover, an investment tycoon named Brenhauer buys a controlling stake in a mega-corporation named GlobalTech. By 2051, he moves his headquarters to the Grand Canyon Province, where GlobalTech eventually creates a self-sufficient economic and military mini-state. Meanwhile, in India and Pakistan, the Shiva virus, named for the dance-like convulsions that it caused in its victims, appears among the human populace. As the infection starts to spread, countries accuse each other of engineering the virus. Political paranoia turn to open aggression and nuclear conflict. The nuclear conflict combined with the virus decimates the planet. Less than one percent of Earth's population survived the Fall, and the Hoover Dam Garrison and Grand Canyon Province are the only known outposts of human civilization.

Outside the protective confines of the Hoover Dam Garrison, the player will encounter ruins of the old world, genetically-altered creatures, strange technology, and six warring factions. Some factions seek to rebuild the old world, others wish to build a new one in their own image, and some simply desire chaos and anarchy. The game is set in the Grand Canyon Province, a 7,000 square-kilometer area surrounding the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam. The environment is zoneless and set in sectors which can be advanced through at the players own pace, each of which continue the story-arc of the game.

Among its features are first-person and third-person views, classless system, Player-versus-Player combat, and crafting.

Factions
Players start out neutral in Fallen Earth and can remain neutral or choose to align themselves with a particular faction. Aligning with a faction will give characters a head start in skills and equipment that the faction specializes in (eg. they'll have easier access to learning certain skills). There are also a number of NPC factions that players can build alignment with. Helping or disrupting factions will affect the player's relationships with them. Killing faction members can also influence your faction alignment.

The alignments of the 6 main factions can be arranged into a "wheel". Each faction has 2 allies, 2 enemy and 1 arch-enemy faction, with the arch-enemy being the faction on the opposite side of the wheel.

Primary factions also have a number of sub-groups that hold to various motives and differences in ideology. While some of these sub-factions are known, many are secretive and will only reveal their existence to those they trust. Characters can become members of a sub-faction and gain special titles, abilities and equipment. Some sub-factions are mutually exclusive, but not all are.

Enforcers
Roots: Military and police forces, first responders and emergency support personnel.

Since The Fall: Dedicated to the belief that order and civilization will be restored, and willing to place their weapons and their lives behind that belief, the Enforcers march a narrow and precarious path, balancing the defense of order with the possibility of dictatorship.

Children of the Apocalypse (aka CHOTA)
Roots: Anarchists, survivalists, paramilitary militia, rebels of society.

Since The Fall: Gathered into a loose confederation, the primal and nomadic CHOTA harass and disrupt attempts to re-build and re-establish society - striking, destroying, and then moving on in search of their next target.

Vistas
Roots: Environmentalists, alternate energy entrepreneurs, seekers of holistic forms of medicine, health and organic food.

Since The Fall: Devoted to the preservation of the natural world, the Vista’s kept knowledge in plant and herbal medicine alive, expanded research with genetic and agricultural skills essential to survival, but their opposition to the resurrection of advanced synthetic technologies creates tension with those who remember how comfortable things seemingly were – and could be again.

Techs
Roots: Scientists, technologists, professors and researchers in all science fields.

Since The Fall: Primarily devoted to maintaining what vestiges of pre-Fall science and technology remain, the Techs are also constantly on the alert for opportunities to rediscover and re-implement the technologies that some say played a part in causing the Fall.

Lightbearers
Roots: Doctors, visionaries and followers of spirit paths, faithful devotees of mind powers and healing arts.

Since The Fall: Devoting themselves to their vision of bringing Light into the shadows and darkness of the Fallen Earth, the Lightbearers view their path as the only true path, and their mastery of mental and mutational powers makes theirs a faith to be feared as well as followed.

Travelers
Roots: Crime syndicates and cartels, street gangs, secret societies, triads, con artists and thieves.

Since The Fall: Using their skills and secret networks to create an “underground economy”, the Travelers blend in to deceive… and are both a threat to the re-establishment of civilization and providers of otherwise unobtainable goods and services.