#averystrivers

"Iron Road" is a story I thought up after seeing a post about a crow solving a maze (I’m weird). As of now I have no individual characters, but here’s the synopsis.

Somewhere between 500 and 800 years ago, humankind exterminated itself in global thermonuclear war, resulting in, of course, mass extinctions, nuclear winter, and drastically upset climate.  In the resulting fallout, four groups of animals began to accelerate in maturity rather than die:

- The Darks: a race of birds descended from modern crows and ravens. They stand roughly a meter tall (average) and have claws under feathers, similar to bats. They may have less numbers than other groups, but make up for this with mental capacity.

- The Bares: A race descended from city rats and laboratory mice, although they now stand at about 1.25 meters. They accelerated faster mentally and did not have as far to develop physically. Er… they could work tools easier than the primitive Darks. By now they have a bigger population than the Darks.

- Cats have all merged into these giant, feral, predatory packs of creatures that roam suburban settings. 

- The Furrs: descended from dogs, with an average Furr being a little taller than a Bare.  Furrs also evolved mentally, but slower than the other two groups. As such, they are used as workers and slaves by both parties.

(Here’s a brilliant concept picture drawn by Vahaela)

By now, Darks and Bares are the two world powers, living in the ruins of old human cities (by now the radiation has dissipated to safe levels). Their intelligence and use of technology has advanced to roughly Iron Age.

At first, the two groups lived relatively peacefully (they were more diverse). Now, both have expanded territory and every now and then clash in bloody conflict.

Motivations:

Bares want the Darks gone. Being descended from rats, they have an instinctual mistrust of the birds, and see them as the only thing keeping them from having a peaceful life. Bares have a distinct advantage over Darks: they can sail (some having been descended from ship rats) and their fleets mainly consist of fiberglass boats that survived the Great Ending (as it’s known now) (as such, they can transport large numbers to areas quickly over water)

Darks want to expand, and the Bares continue to get in their way. They have put a great effort into an arms race, and have used Furrs as grunts in battle. Naturally, they have an advantage of flight- however, their larger bodies limit their range, and they can’t transport other items with me (planes and such have long since rusted away)

Cats… want to live. and eat. and make other cats.

Furrs wish for a life outside of their current status.  There are rumours on both sides about Furr communities remote from Dark and Bares. Basically, they want to live in peace and leave the fighting to the birds and rats.