The turn of the century brought about a rude awakening which would shake all of Terra. 

In last 500 years, the Holy Eternal Imperium of Mankind, located on the continent Plaihera had conquered most the world, invading all three of the human kingdoms, Ogira the endless desert, the Kingdom of Onura and the Democratic Nation of Humans on Etiuan. Trying to convert their populations to their religion, the Imperial Doctrine, purging and enslaving many heretics on their religious crusade. The Imperium grew more and more, with a seemingly endless need for ressources, they started stripping their newly conquered lands bare. Minerals were mined until nothing but dirt and rocks remaind, forests were felled until not even a single piece of wood remained. All ressources were then transferred by ship to the mainland, where they sought to momentarily saturate the endless hunger of the factories. 

The news spread like wildfire, the spark had lit the flame that was to come. 

Revolution. Freedom. Chaos.

The conquered nations which were already on the verge of rebelling against their ruthless conqueror, were the first to attack. Freeing themselves from the claws of the weakend Imperium in a matter of days and pushing them back to Plaihera where it did not look any better. Slave revolts and believers who had either gone mad or renounced their beliefs were revolting, the Holy Capital was burning, the Imperial Palace collapsed as the flames consumed the whole city. Only rubbles and ash were remaing as the flames burned on. For the first time in centuries, the factories of the Imperium halted, never to be turned on again as they were mostly destroyed. The flame that had started on that day, would cost 260 million people their lives. The population of the Holy Eternal Imperium dwindled as those that survived the first days, were left to starve afterwards. 

Arden was woken by loud noises, startling him, which caused him to almost fall out of his bed.

He let out a big yawn, he hated waking up early.

"Great now the sun is blinding me!" he thought, which prompted him to slowly stand up.

Still half asleep he got dressed to see what all the ruckus was about.

As he left his small home and made his way to where all the nosie came from, he noticed a big group of people surronding the town square.

They seemed angry or rather totally furious.

Now he was really wondering what was going on.

As he made his way towards the front, he finally saw what caused all the commotion.

In the middle of the town square they were about to hang a member of the long collapsed Holy Eternal Imperium of Mankind.

Those damm fanatics never knew when to give up.

"Silence" a man in the middle, next to the prisoner shouted. 

He continued by exclaiming "This outlaw, this scum, is a Member of the Imperial Doctrine!"

"Not only that, he also brutally murdered six people" he shouted furiously.

The crowd was clearly shocked, as some faces went white.

"Law shall bring justice, we shall execute him for his sins against mankind" the man shouted loudly for all to hear.

I watched as the prisoner was brought to the gallows, the rope being tightened around his neck as he shouted "You heretics shall perish. For the Eternal Imperium, for the Eternal Emperor!"

The man next to him said with a grin "What Imperium, what Emperor? They have left you, just as the air will any second now!"

With that the man pulled a lever and the floor beneath the prisoner gave way, a sound was heard as his neck snapped.

The crowd cheered, feeling hungry and being unfazed by what had just unfolded, I made my way to a café.

After I had eaten delicious bacon with eggs and had my long needed morning coffee I made my way to the Hunters Guild.

There were three guilds in total, the Merchants Guild, the Scavanger Guild and lastly the guild I belonged to, the Hunters Guild.

Hunting was not soley related to animals, most of the jobs were for monsters or the outlawed members of the Imperial Doctrine. There were two kinds of monsters, those that had always existed in this world and those that claimed out of the rubbles of the fallen Holy Imperium.

One can not speak of having seen true horror without having laid eyes upon those abominations.

Some refered to them as the Eternal Emperors revenge, Members of the Imperial Doctrine believed that they were a punishment sent by their Emperor for having wronged him. In whatever way.

I believed neither, I knew where they came from.

I had personnaly seen the horrors that unfolded on the Imperiums demize, three years prior.

I saw them crawl out of the toxic pools that formed at the bottom of the cities.

Once anything living had entered those pools, they turned, their bodies changed. They became highly aggressive.