Prologue

The world had been in chaos for almost 200 years now. So many countries had been destroyed and then re-built. So many of the people killed until there were only 2 million people were left living on it, very small compared to all those years ago. There were still smaller countries existing but a line had been drawn between east and west. America and Canada existed with their same borders but both held much more territory, European countries scrambled to gain as much land as possible, Russia now ruled most of the Middle East, and China and Japan shared the rest of the eastern half of the world.

No country trusted another since that one incident that still haunted them all, though most of the population had forgotten the terrible event. That which set off all this destruction and chaos in the world. Almost 200 years ago, when peace had almost finally been achieved, there had been a mechanical error in the system and three nuclear bombs, once abandoned, were reactivated and sent flying. The bombs exploded in highly populated and industrial areas; one between the Middle East and East, One in the center of Europe and the final one at the center of the Canadian-American border. The nuclear effects reached all around the globe and affected many.

Millions had died instantly while most died slowly and over time. Most of the two million survivors had hidden underground in safe houses that had been specially built. They had remained unaffected during the 10 years the poisonous gases had swarmed the Earth. A small percentage of people however had not been able to get to such houses and had been exposed to the after-effects of the bombs. Some died but a large portion of those people survived and, eventually, mutated so that their bodies would be able to handle such harmful poisons. Many of them took on animalistic traits and features, some simply changed color or form (sometimes both), and some simply looked regular but had subtle changes in them.

The people who had mutated were shunned from the rest. They were hated for their being different despite the fact that it was not their fault. The group collected itself in a small territory given to them by Russia so they could settle in and stay away from the rest of the world. Those people gratefully took the land and stayed there, migrating from place to place. They never belonged to a country but neither were they a country of their own, at least, not until the last 50 years.

The mutated peoples had been relatively happy until the other countries began to fear them once more because of their growing numbers. A massacre took place and only 700 or so of them had survived it through hiding. Those who'd survived took a small portion of that land given to them and settled there in secret. They formed a government and eventually came to the agreement that they needed a permanent home, a permanent government, and military. After 20 years of struggle a new and unsteady country was born. It had no name, was small (almost the size of only three cities) and its boundaries were marked by a river, rock, tree and mountain. It was not the most efficient but it managed to survive 30 years.

The other surviving countries did not recognize it as a country until they had almost reached the end of its 30 years. The people had not yet given their country a name and thus it had been given one at the second world meeting for over 200 years. Although the other countries and their people were slightly uneasy at the thought of there being an entire country of those mutations, they realized that the slowly expanding territory was now strong enough to be recognized as one of them. It was then named Liahn and its people the Linians.