Origins: A Mutation Born from Crisis
C-23: short for Chimera-23, was never meant to exist. Official reports claimed it was a natural mutation of previous coronaviruses, an evolution of COVID-19 that adapted to human hosts in unforeseen ways. However, as the virus spread at an alarming rate, whispers of biological warfare, lab leaks, and genetic manipulation began to surface. Some believed it was an engineered pathogen, a failed bio-weapon designed by an unknown entity, whether a rogue state, a shadow government, or a corporate experiment gone wrong.
Unlike previous pandemics, C-23 didn’t just attack the lungs. It hijacked the entire immune system, turning the body against itself in ways doctors had never seen before. It wasn’t a quick killer like Ebola, nor a slow-burning sickness like HIV, it was something entirely different, something far more insidious.
Symptoms: A Plague Unlike Any Other
C-23 manifested in three known stages, with survival rates plummeting as it progressed:
1. Stage One: The Fevered Dream
Symptoms began with high fever, chills, and body aches, mimicking the flu.
Patients experienced lucid dreams and hallucinations: visions that many survivors described as fragments of forgotten memories or glimpses of possible futures.
Some reported strange behavioral changes, violent outbursts, heightened paranoia, or sudden moments of profound clarity.
2. Stage Two: The Collapse
The immune system turned hyperactive, attacking healthy organs as if they were infected cells.
Victims suffered intense neurological damage, leading to temporary blindness, seizures, and cognitive deterioration.
Many became nonverbal, losing the ability to speak or understand language for extended periods.
Heart failure, kidney shutdown, and massive internal bleeding followed within days.
3. Stage Three: The Wraith Syndrome (For Those Who Lived)
A tiny percentage of infected individuals survived Stage Two but were left permanently altered.
Survivors exhibited extreme sensory sensitivity, heightened reflexes, and, in rare cases, enhanced cognitive functions or physical capabilities, leading to the belief that C-23 was somehow unlocking dormant aspects of human potential.
However, these abilities came at a cost, many experienced psychotic breaks, personality shifts, or permanent detachment from reality.
These survivors became known as “Wraiths”, feared by both the public and the government. Some became pariahs, others were experimented on, and a few disappeared entirely.
The Aftermath: A World in Ruin
Unlike COVID-19, C-23 wasn’t something people could learn to live with. The virus devastated economies, collapsed governments, and reduced entire cities to lawless wastelands as infected populations overwhelmed medical infrastructure. With no effective vaccine and only experimental treatments that came too late, C-23 wiped out millions before the world even had time to react.
Quarantine Zones Became Death Traps – Cities were locked down under martial law, but as the virus spread, containment efforts failed spectacularly. National Guard units were forced to abandon entire districts, leaving them to rot in chaos.
The Collapse of Trust – When world leaders and governments began withholding information, the public turned against them. Riots and violent uprisings broke out as people demanded answers. Conspiracy theories flourished, claiming that C-23 was a deliberate culling of the population.
America in Chaos – The assassination of the President, during his second term only accelerated the country’s descent into anarchy. The federal government fractured, leading to regional power struggles. The National Guard struggled to hold key cities, but even their efforts proved futile.
By the time 2035 arrived, Seattle, once a beacon of tech innovation, had become a fractured city-state, its streets controlled by corporations, criminal factions, and the lawless remnants of what was once civilization. Hope was scarce.
The Vvaywards and C-23: A Deeper Connection
The Vvaywards weren’t just rebels against a broken system, they were products of it. Many of them had survived C-23 or lost loved ones to its grip. Some were Wraiths, left with abilities they never asked for. Others had simply been abandoned by society, left to fend for themselves in a world that no longer cared.
Now, as the world teeters on the brink of something even darker, C-23 may not just be a relic of the past, it may still be lurking in the shadows, waiting to resurface in a way no one could predict.