The Asylumists

Green Eyes

No one has been within view of the Asylum cities since the end of the Asylumist War. The statements from that time, now hundreds of years old, speak of cities that might as well have been gateways to hell itself.

Mountains of bodies lay amidst the jagged, torn buildings. Huge caterpillar-like engines whirled and burrowed through the corpses, spewing blood and tissue as they pumped the mashed remnants back into power plants that belched black smoke into the air.

Atop this hellish landscape of metal and flesh, the Horde could be seen locked in their endless fight, lighting up the smog-saturated skies with gunfire and explosions.

Were someone to look across those same lands today, much of those grisly scenes would remain. Now, however, they would be joined by the unmistakable sight of the Blood Engine factories and workshops, whirring with activity and nightmarish production.

Many of these fortresses churn out bodyguards and agents such as the Death Squads and Heavies—cheap, effective labour used to capture other subjects or remove a threat.

Others are surrounded by a fluorescent glow, their pipes and canisters leaking chemicals and radiation into the surrounding ruins. These facilities house those named the Green Eyes, for obvious reasons.

They serve their masters by delivering death by the gallon, their bodies transformed into vessels for whatever horrific concoctions the Blood Engines brew within their factories.

Asylumist biology is incredibly resilient and capable of storing numerous chemicals for transport. Even so, the suits designed to diminish exposure are also necessary simply to hold the bodies of the Green Eyes together as they slowly deteriorate.

When breached, these suits disperse plumes of gas and toxins that erode and melt anything unfortunate enough to be nearby. Their very presence causes the air to thicken and churn as the apparatus they wear—designed to contain their corrosive mixtures rather than help their wearers breathe—constantly vents and leaks into the surrounding atmosphere.

Like the Death Squads, the Green Eyes operate as servants and agents of the Blood Engine, controlled through technology implanted into their bodies. As a result, forces such as the Confederation are able to tap into the transmissions passing between them.

The communications themselves remain unintelligible.

But they serve as a warning.

When a threat draws near and communications begin to fill with the garbled, droning screech of the Green Eyes, many forces know exactly what it means.

It is time to retreat.