The oceans transformed in alien ways after which the Pandoravirus began to infect the world's landmasses with an airborne mutagenic mist. The mist was both a microbial contaminant and a conduit that networked the hive-mind of the Pandoravirus. Humanity was not prepared; everyone who failed to reach high ground where the mist could not reach succumbed to it.
The monstrosities of this future world are intended to evoke themes of tentacles and unknown horror familiar to fans of H. P. Lovecraft. Likewise, the works of John Carpenter influence the themes of science fiction horror, particularly related to the mist that both hides alien monsters and creates them.
The game starts in 2047. The alien mist and monsters created by the Pandoravirus have overwhelmed and destroyed worldwide civilization, reducing the remnants of humanity to isolated havens that are sparsely spread across the planet. The Pandoravirus controls the oceans, contaminating all sea life, and has brought humans to the brink of extinction on land. Various factions control the havens of humanity, and they each have very different ideas of how to survive the alien threat.
Phoenix Project
Players begin the game as the leader of a cell of the Phoenix Project, a global and secretive organization. Since the 20th century, the Phoenix Project has been organized to be ready to help humanity in a time of worldwide peril. The Phoenix Project activates the members of players' cell who then gather at a base called Phoenix Point. The cell includes some of the world's best remaining soldiers, scientists and engineers.
However, after they assemble under the players' leadership, no further instructions come from the Phoenix Project. Gameplay focuses on players' strategic and tactical choices in finding out what has happened to the rest of the Phoenix Project while also trying to save humanity from total annihilation. Their ending, considered the bad ending, results in the deployment of a countervirus to destroy the Pandoravirus and all infected individuals.
This simultaneously kills most of the remaining life on earth, and leaves the human population at a tiny fraction of survivors. The Disciples of Anu disband after the death of their god, New Jericho is unable to survive the decimation to its population, and Synedrion likewise collapses. It is left to the Phoenix Project to lead humanity into a new future, preparing for the next encounter with an alien species that desires their planet.
Disciples of Anu
The Disciples of Anu are a human cult with beliefs that synthesize parts of Abrahamic religions with aspects of pre-Pandoravirus doomsday cults. Their world view sees human nature as inherently corrupted by human biology. The Disciples of Anu worship an alien god, which they refer to as "the Dead God".
Cultists view the alien mist as both punishment and salvation. They have found ways to develop human-alien hybrids. The process for doing so seems to involve the Disciples deliberately exposing humans to the mist in a way that can allow for the humans' intelligence to remain.
The Disciples of Anu typically locate their havens in caves, and their haven leaders are called Exarchs. Disciples are led with absolute authority by a leader, the Exalted, who seems to exhibit highly advanced and stable mutations. Via an alliance between the Disciples and the Phoenix Project, the Exalted can be delivered to the central control node of the Pandoravirus, assuming control of the network and using it to form a symbiosis of humanity and the Pandoravirus. The Phoenix Project via support returns to its original mission mandate.
New Jericho
New Jericho is a militaristic human faction which seeks to fight the alien threat directly by building a superior force. They are led by Tobias West, a former billionaire who also is a veteran mercenary. West gained his prominence in the 2020s as the head of Vanadium Inc., a technology and security firm which provided escorts for container ships as they traveled the world's oceans when the Pandoravirus mist and mutations first began to appear.
Being a league of human-focused survivalists, New Jericho seeks to wipe out every trace of the aliens on Earth. Their leaders consider warfare and military technology, including enhancement of humans through technology, as the only solution to the alien threat. However they have conflicting ideas among themselves that threaten to splinter their faction before they can realize their objectives.
New Jericho havens typically are fortresses at abandoned industrial or hilltop locations, and they have an extensive manufacturing base for military technology. Allied with the Phoenix Project, they successfully place a targeting beacon at the alien control node allowing for a decapitation strike. With the aliens leaderless, the war shifts in humanity's favor leading to an eventual victory. All of humanity is thus united under one government, and the Phoenix Project is given the resources to continue with its original mission and prepare for the origin of the Pandoravirus.
Synedrion
Synedrion have the most advanced technology of all the human factions. They are radical ecologists who seek to build a new and better human civilization out of the detritus of the old. They value knowledge and seek to form a global nation that exists in partnership with both its citizens and the environment. Viewing aliens as part of Earth's environmental landscape, Synedrion seek to coexist with the aliens by using technology such as a wall that can repel the alien's mist. Synedrion generally place their havens on elevated hi-tech platforms.
Overall, they are a decentralized organization that mostly is interconnected through shared philosophy and stable communication networks; however, havens that become disconnected from others prioritize self-sufficiency. The organizational decision-making of Synedrion is slow. Via an alliance with the Phoenix Project they are able to deliver a command virus into the alien control node, allowing them to take control of the Pandoravirus and use it to terraform the planet into one that is sustainably suited for the human race. The Phoenix Project resumes its original mandate.
