Reclaimers

Evolved Strain

The first thing you notice about a Reclaimer is the skin. On their arms, legs, and shoulders, the dermis has worn completely away, leaving exposed tissue that has hardened into a leathery, muscle-like surface. It is dense, wiry, and startlingly tough. The second thing you notice is the eyes: cold, pale, with an icy glint that catches light in a way that seems almost deliberate. That subtle glow is luciferin, the same bioluminescent compound found in other Evolved, but in Reclaimers it manifests only in the eyes, as if the rest of their bodies were too practical for such displays.

Reclaimers are a study in paradox. Their musculature is dense and powerful, fortified by an oxygen-rich bloodstream that grants them remarkable strength and endurance. Their bones, however, tell a different story. Radioactive processes within their bodies have made their skeleton brittle over time, particularly in the joints and spine. A Reclaimer can lift what others cannot, haul burdens across frozen terrain, and endure conditions that would break a lesser Strain. But the cost is written in Fractures that heal slowly and joints that ache in the cold.

They began as exiles. The frozen northern strongholds held out against The Infection longer than most places, shielded by geography and isolation. When returning defenders unknowingly carried the Infection within their walls, the communities responded with banishment rather than purging. The infected were cast out into the frozen wastes to survive or die. They survived. They banded together, adapted, and when the strongholds eventually fell to the same Infection that had cast them out, the Reclaimers were the ones who walked back through the gates and claimed what was left.

That origin story defines them. Among the Evolved, Reclaimers value ownership earned through labor, fiercely mistrust imposed authority, and regard every tool, structure, and resource they possess as something reclaimed from a world that tried to take everything from them.

Culture

Culture and cultural heritage

Reclaimer culture is built on the principle that nothing of value is given freely. What can be earned, rebuilt, or reclaimed carries meaning; what is handed over without effort does not. Their communities take visible pride in tangible results: repaired tools, rebuilt structures, salvaged resources put back to use. Every object tells a story of effort.
Tight-knit and fiercely independent, Reclaimers value leaders who work alongside their people rather than directing from a distance. Authority imposed without demonstrated competence provokes deep mistrust. Loyalty, when earned, is unyielding, but earning it requires proving yourself through shared hardship and consistent reliability. Reclaimers do not take shortcuts with trust.

Shared customary codes and values

Ownership earned through labor, not gift or inheritance. Hardship as a proving ground for strength and character. Fierce independence tempered by loyalty to those who have earned it through shared effort. The belief that everything worth having is worth reclaiming.

Common Customs, traditions and rituals

The act of reclamation itself carries ritualistic weight among Reclaimers. Rebuilding a broken tool, salvaging materials from ruins, restoring a structure that others abandoned: these are not merely practical tasks but expressions of the Strain's core identity. A Reclaimer settlement can be identified by the visible evidence of repair and reuse, the patched walls and reinforced gates that other Strains might see as signs of poverty but Reclaimers view as badges of resourcefulness.
Shared labor is the social adhesive. Working together through harsh conditions creates bonds that are seldom articulated but fiercely maintained. A Reclaimer who has hauled timber beside you in a blizzard is an ally in ways that no formal agreement can replicate.

Common Taboos

Waste is deeply offensive to Reclaimers. Discarding something that could be repaired, abandoning a resource that still has use, or treating materials carelessly provokes genuine contempt. Their ancestors survived exile in frozen wastelands where every scrap mattered, and that scarcity mentality persists even in communities with relative abundance. Equally despised is the assumption of authority without demonstrated competence: giving orders to a Reclaimer without having earned the right to lead them is a faster path to conflict than most outsiders realize.

Common Myths and Legends

The Reclaimers' understanding of their relationship with the Infection is characteristically blunt. They were exiled. The Infection came with them. Over generations in the frozen wastes, it reshaped their bodies for survival: denser muscle, tougher skin, eyes that catch light in the dark. It also made their bones brittle, a cost they acknowledge without complaint. The Infection gave them the strength to survive exile and return. That it also exacted a price is simply the way of the wasteland. Nothing is free. Everything must be reclaimed.
Reclaimer history is preserved through oral tradition, passed from generation to generation with the weight of scripture. Every family maintains its own version of three foundational stories: the Fall, the Merican Horde, and the Reach. Details shift between tellings, but the core elements hold constant. A great sickness swept north from Merican lands. Thousands of desperate Mericans fled across the lakes, choking the border crossings. Traffic locked up for hundreds of miles, and the zed found easy targets trapped in their vehicles. The Reclaimers tried to stem the tide but were overwhelmed. They destroyed two major border crossings to slow the flood, leaving only the Rainbow bridge passable, now a corridor of rusted cars still occupied by hissing zed. The enormous waterfalls to the west made boat crossings suicidal. The Reach, as the Reclaimers call this era, defined their relationship with the south: one of siege, sacrifice, and justified suspicion.
When the Ironworks rose to power, enslaved Reclaimers were put to the most dangerous work available. As Skywalkers, they climbed partially dismantled skyscrapers using improvised welding equipment to strip girders, pull plate glass, and tear out wiring. Deaths from falls, storms, and sheer exhaustion numbered in scores per week. The Ironworks prized Reclaimers for their climbing ability and their reputation for obedience, a reputation the Reclaimers nursed carefully while organizing resistance behind the scenes.
The Reclaimer homeland, which the Ironworks dismissively called Canuckistan, encompassed Lakehead, Tohr, Can Do Station, Soosainmaree, the Fork, Wins, and Mont Royal, along with settlements scattered through Kaybek and Sasketoba. The Kaybekwa of Mont Royal spoke La bell Fransez, a tongue that baffled Merican overseers and functioned as a ready-made code for resistance communications.
The most devastating blow to Reclaimer territory came not from the Ironworks but from disease. A virulent plague struck Tohr, bringing building fever, choking cough, and black bile. It killed four out of every five Reclaimers it touched. Survivors fled to small islands offshore while the zed in the streets served as continual carriers, making any attempt to retake the city extraordinarily dangerous. Iron Slaves, whose altered biology granted some resistance to the illness, crossed south in numbers to help the Reclaimers reclaim their city in exchange for refuge. That alliance, forged in desperation and mutual need, became one of the few genuine bonds between the two Evolved Strains during the Ironworks era.

Evolved Strain. Exiles from frozen northern strongholds with wiry musculature, brittle bones, and icy bioluminescent eyes. Ancestors traced to resource-rich northern territories of the 1990s.

Classification

Strain