The Burners
Every summer, the Burners pick a stretch of jungle in the Wildfire Wastes and set it on fire. When the flames die and the ash settles, new farmland lies where the Overgrowth stood. Communities move in. Civilization reclaims another mile. The Burners move on to the next location and do it again.
It sounds simple. It is anything but. The Overgrowth does not yield easily. Fires unearth buried horrors, mutated things that lived beneath the canopy and do not appreciate sunlight. Cinder activity spikes during every burn. And the jungle itself fights back with a tenacity that borders on malice. A Burner is lucky to survive five summer operations. Most die in the flames, or in what comes crawling out after.
Joining is permanent. There is no retirement, no honorable discharge. New recruits often take new names, marking the end of whatever life they had before. Many arrive with nothing and nowhere else to go, but the Burners do not carry despair. They carry purpose. The work they do is the foundation that settlements are built on, and they know it. The wasteland regards them with equal parts fear and admiration.
Location for each burn is chosen by Burn Master Capelle, who selects based on need and guidance from the Russell Family or the Forgotten Ones. When the red smoke plumes rise high over the Lorado sky, the Burners answer. They always answer.
It sounds simple. It is anything but. The Overgrowth does not yield easily. Fires unearth buried horrors, mutated things that lived beneath the canopy and do not appreciate sunlight. Cinder activity spikes during every burn. And the jungle itself fights back with a tenacity that borders on malice. A Burner is lucky to survive five summer operations. Most die in the flames, or in what comes crawling out after.
Joining is permanent. There is no retirement, no honorable discharge. New recruits often take new names, marking the end of whatever life they had before. Many arrive with nothing and nowhere else to go, but the Burners do not carry despair. They carry purpose. The work they do is the foundation that settlements are built on, and they know it. The wasteland regards them with equal parts fear and admiration.
Location for each burn is chosen by Burn Master Capelle, who selects based on need and guidance from the Russell Family or the Forgotten Ones. When the red smoke plumes rise high over the Lorado sky, the Burners answer. They always answer.
History
The Burners began as a group of scientists and researchers exploring old world ruins buried beneath the Overgrowth jungles, searching for knowledge of what came before the Fall. In the course of their expeditions, they discovered that clearing the jungle created space for new settlements. The reclamation effort gradually eclipsed their original scholarly mission, and what started as academic curiosity hardened into the permanent, fire-driven vocation that defines the Burners today.
