Dead Zones
Vast, irradiated wastelands where the laws of nature—and civilization—break down. Home to Nulls and mutated horrors.
Population: Unknown (Nulls, Reapers)
Status: Barely surviving, Extremely Resource-Poor
Governance: None or controlled by warlords and militant leaders
Beyond the colonies lies everything else — scorched red rock, the gray ruins of old cities, and glasslands where the heat has fused the desert sand into sheets. The "Green Zones" are often toxic, choked with mutated flora that has reclaimed the concrete. The skeletons of the old world are still visible in the ruins, picked clean by scavengers but never fully gone.
This is where the Nulls survive. Identity-less, stateless, living on debris and salvage. They are not a faction — they are a condition: what happens to a person when every system has discarded them.
The most dangerous inhabitants are the Reapers — organized militant factions drawn from the Nulls, waging war against both the Sanctums and the Colonies. They raid supply lines, hit colony perimeters, and push against Sanctum borders with increasing coordination. Better weapons are reaching them through black markets. Their movements are starting to look less like raids and more like strategy.
"There is no law in the Dead Zone. Only the food chain." — Mercenary Maxim