This world doesn't bleed red anymore. It bleeds ash.
The old world ended long ago—not with a blaze of glory, but with silence that stretched too long, broken only by the desperate screams of the dying. Decades before now, a biological weapon of unprecedented scale tore through civilization. It wasn't just a virus; it was a catalyst of mutation, corruption, and endless despair.
Eighty percent of humanity did not merely perish—they transformed. Their bodies twisted into grotesque parodies of flesh and bone, warped by the lingering poison. These cursed survivors became known as the Hollowed—monstrous beings who hunt the living, lurking in the shadows of broken cities, sewers flooded with decay, and overgrown wastelands where nature and death entwine.
The Hollowed do not die like humans. Some cannot die at all. Their forms shift, regenerate, and warp, fueled by the echo of anguish and loss that birthed them.
THE CHROME HUNTERS
When governments crumbled, the corporations rose, draping their iron rule over the world's cracked skeleton. In this harsh new order, survival required more than will—it demanded transformation.
Cybernetic augmentation became the last hope. Flesh was fortified with steel and circuitry. Only a select few were granted the gift of full-body cyberware—known as the Exalted. These warriors, enhanced beyond human limits, took on the mantle of Chrome Hunters: elite mercenaries and monster-killers forged to stem the tide of the Hollowed.
Chrome Hunters are humanity's sharpest edge, wielding both technology and brutal skill. Their chrome implants provide enhanced reflexes, reinforced bones, integrated weaponry, and neural uplinks that sync them to battlefield AI. But every upgrade comes at a cost—sanity frays under the pressure of the machine inside, and the line between human and weapon blurs.
Ranks within the Chrome Hunters are fierce and unforgiving. Only those who survive countless hunts—and countless horrors—ascend. The highest hunters hold positions in the Monster-Killers Guild, a shadowy cabal of power, influence, and relentless pragmatism.
Main protagonist: JASON HUNTER 27 — "STEEL VANE" KORRAN
Full name: Jason Korran
Among the Exalted, none cut a sharper silhouette than Jason Korran—call sign Hunter 27, codename Steel Vane. Encased in chrome from skull to soles, Jason is the apex of cybernetic warfare, a walking arsenal and a cold executioner.
He's not a protector. He's a predator. Where others run from the Hollowed, Jason hunts them, stalking the Ashen Vein with merciless efficiency. The scars on his metal plating tell stories of battles where entire squads fell, and only he stood unbroken.
Jason's cyberware is so advanced it almost transcends human limits: enhanced targeting arrays, reflex boosters, nano-fiber musculature, and a neural interface rumored to allow direct mental control over deployed combat drones and weapons.
But beneath the steel lies a man shaped by loss and vengeance—hardened, relentless, and fueled by the ghosts of the children the Hollowed claimed.
THE HOLLOWED
The Hollowed are the world's cursed reflection—humanity corrupted beyond recognition. They are the remnants of what once was, shaped by the poison that shattered the world.
They come in many forms:
Weeping Fathers and Mothers—grotesque, crawling entities that embody sorrow and loss. Their wails echo through the ruins, luring victims with mimicry of lost voices.
The Crawlers—fast, feral mutants that hunt in packs, tearing flesh with jagged claws.
The Hollowed Titans—massive, lumbering horrors that shrug off bullets and crush everything beneath their bulk.
Some Hollowed retain faint echoes of their former selves—memories, emotions, even fleeting flashes of humanity that make them all the more terrifying. They are drawn to pain, grief, and blood, hunting relentlessly to add to the endless cycle of loss.
Killing a Hollowed is never simple. Some must be disintegrated, others have to be locked away in ice or chemical vats for decades. The Hollowed's mutative biology resists conventional weapons; only the advanced tech of the Chrome Hunters can put them down for good.
ASHEN VEIN: THE FINAL HISTORY
"The world didn't die with fire. It died with silence. Then screaming. And then… nothing but ash."
– Unknown survivor, Codex Fragment 12-A