Cindy
*sigh* ud know this if u read the silmarillion...
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This has been the case for all of my writing, but because of the wider implications of this document, I wish to affirm that this is not canon lore for Nebulous' current project, but rather writing of my own that exists as a background for the rest of my personal writing. I have often used Neb's forum as a "general HL2RP" forum which is why you may often find my writing to be in disconnect from what you experience on the server.
I mused recently that I found it interesting that both @welcome to the Retirement and I wrote out themes regarding heavy Xen infestation in North America around the exact same time period, which is what actually led to me entirely rewriting my explanation for my premise due to the sheer quality of Hoovie's interpretation of the subject. And as always, I have come to share my writing with you all to (hopefully) enjoy!
I mused recently that I found it interesting that both @welcome to the Retirement and I wrote out themes regarding heavy Xen infestation in North America around the exact same time period, which is what actually led to me entirely rewriting my explanation for my premise due to the sheer quality of Hoovie's interpretation of the subject. And as always, I have come to share my writing with you all to (hopefully) enjoy!
As the Black Mesa Incident came to a close, a lone theoretical physicist vanished into legend as a pure being of myth, who many attributed to resolving the initial crises of the incident. While the world at large would never know Dr. Freeman’s fate once he stepped through the portal at the Lambda Complex, he was in truth responsible for eliminating the very being that had invaded Earth during the crisis: the enigmatic Nihilanth. However, the Nihilanth was, during its battle with Freeman, artificially holding the way between Earth and the borderworld open, and its death further destabilized an already resonant rift between the two planes.
The consequence of this moment would not be seen for many years later. In that time, the Combine extinguished their opposition on Earth, made their landfall, established their dominion across their new prospect and erected innumerous citadels throughout the planet’s surface. All the while, portal storms ravaged the regions of the world not under the protection of the citadels’ resonance stabilizers, juxtaposing alien flora and fauna into Earth’s various ecosystems. So when such an event initially occurred over the ruins of Black Mesa six years after the arrival of the Combine, it was not immediately met with much cause for alarm. It was only when the portal storm stayed, and soon began to grow beyond the confines of the area, and began interfering with local Combine operations, that they became aware of the phenomenon that then came to be known as Resonance Homogenization.
Each object possesses an innate resonant frequency (or “resonance”) that binds that object into one spatial plane or the other. Increasing the resonance frequency causes a given object to tear open a rift in reality, allowing for interdimensional travel. However, some things are more resonant than others: For example, virtually all matter on Earth and most of the universe carries very little resonance; by comparison, Xenium is a very resonant substance, and requires comparatively very little energy to open an interdimensional portal with. A significant change in the resonant frequency of an object to critical levels can cause a Resonance Cascade that can temporarily cause a plane to touch another that is overlapping it. In the case of the Black Mesa Incident, Earth touched the borderworld Xen, with the point of origin being the Sector C test labs of the Black Mesa Research Facility in New Mexico.
However, due to further disruption from the Nihilanth forcibly tearing the rift between the two planes further open, and then dying while holding the way open, the point of origin for the rift began to cause everything around it to resonate with Xen’s frequency by producing particle storms, which continuously spread outwards. Thus, Resonance Homogenization occurs. To an onlooker, this may appear as though the surface of the Earth is being transformed into the likeness of Xen- this physical territory being labeled by the Combine as the North American Exclusion Zone (NAEZ). In reality, Earth is, in pieces, being ripped apart and pulled into the borderworld seamlessly. It is suspected that the fragmented satellites dotting the borderworld, and the various alien lifeforms inhabiting them, are the remains of other planetary bodies that were stricken with Resonance Homogenization.
Earth is not being transformed into the likeness of the borderworld: Earth is falling in.
While the NAEZ has transmuted the American southwest into an incredibly inhospitable landscape, some have still dared to call it home.
"Wildmen" is the colloquialism for those who have chosen to dwell within the NAEZ despite the dangers it presents. These people are mostly those who have been left behind from city evacuations, ranging from former citizens to former members of civil protection and other Combine institutions. Wildmen have not just simply adapted to the zone, but also been changed by it: Those who have been in the NAEZ for even a few years have adapted to the spores that flourish within the region, able to breathe the spores without issue at the consequence of suffocating in normal Earth atmosphere- requiring Wildmen who venture outside the NAEZ to bring with them a surplus of spores to breathe during their stay beyond the NAEZ’s particle stormfront. It is suspected that the Wildmen phenomena is the direct result of the particle storms adapting terrestrial life for existence within the borderworld.
Wildmen are not a single unified structure or group, but rather a diverse category of people and cultures spawned from the NAEZ's emergence. Wildmen tribes with varying different interests, ambitions, and needs for survival litter the NAEZ, most of which occupying a Goldilocks region that's far enough in to be too big of a hassle for Overwatch to occupy themselves, but not deep enough within that they face the more vicious horrors lurking at the eye of the storm. The Wildmen that inhabit the deeper parts of the zone are either isolationists who prefer to keep to themselves, or those whose minds have been claimed by the NAEZ itself; unhinged fanatics and raving madmen. As a result, the NAEZ is in no shortage of doomsday cults.
This is not to say that there are no militant or resistant groups within the NAEZ, but many if not most have simply chosen to exist within the safety that the NAEZ offers from the Combine rather than push their luck fighting a force that they feel will ultimately be pushed off the planet by the NAEZ regardless.
Physiological changes to Wildmen include:
• Orange coloration of the eyes, which is either faint or vibrant depending on their overall exposure to the NAEZ's transformations.
• Gills that have emerged around the sides of Wildmen's necks, which facilitate the breathing of the spores spread throughout the NAEZ and outright replace the human need or ability to breathe oxygen.
As a result of this phenomenon and the unique situation it presents to the entire continent with Combine forces and civilian populations continuously migrating further east to escape the grasp of the NAEZ, the Administrator of Earth declared the continental region uniquely as the North American Annex (NAA), and delegated a special board comprising of Combine administrators and members of the scientific community- the North American Regional Oversight Council (NAROC), to directly monitor and work towards addressing the ever-growing threat of Resonance Homogenization.
While Infestation Control teams are responsible for much of the field work that helps stem the tide, more effective methods are developed by the Adjunct for Transformative Advention (ATA) which seek to forcibly ground areas to Earth’s resonant frequency, thus halting the advance of the particle storms that are transforming the planet’s surface. This is achieved through the placement of various arrays that are intended to surround the circumference of the NAEZ, what civilian populations have dubbed as “the Spires,” which are seen lining up and down the Mississippi River. The oncoming energy from the particle storms that would otherwise be causing objects to begin resonating is consequently diverted out from the arrays as artificial portal storms, which the Combine have put to use as deterrents to open acts of defiance outside population centers.
While the NAEZ is far too treacherous to maintain an active city within its bounds, the Combine still maintain fortifications and garrisons littered throughout the zone, although these garrisons have become increasingly fewer in number as the particle storms advance and these outposts fall deeper into the region as a result. Overwatch still frequently deploys into the zone, both to combat the Wildmen where they can (with mixed success, given they are fighting these naturalists on their own turf) and to explore ways in which the Combine might stem the growth of the zone from eradicating any more urban centers.
Still, the NAEZ is the Combine's most active battlefield on Earth, a region they are continuing to both control and press into to maintain the security of their global occupation.
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