The Waste Mile

In this world it is race or die. The earth has been fractured and destroyed, what little is left is either toxic, barren, scorched, blighted or a mixture of all 4. The only thing people can do to survive is by winning a series of races, they race vehicles they have built themselves by scavenging what little is left of the old world.

Because the Old World was destroyed there isnt much left of regular cities. What remains are called Scrap Heaps; massive, looming cities built out of salvaged scrap and electronics. They serve as a hubs where racers, known as Riders, can stop, rest, eat, and repair or improve their vehicles in preparation for a race. They come in a variety of forms. Some are massive skyscraping towers of scrap while others could be situated above an ever expanding cave system which allows for more people and opportunities for mining. The geography of the world is a shadow of what it once was. There are toxic pits of boiling oil that dot the landscapes of the middle east, entire lakes have been evaporated and left as giant salt flats. Lush jungles and forests have been charred and in some places leaving nothing but a humongous landscape of burnt husks and animal bones. However, there are some places that have been spared from the destruction, mostly underground caves and reservoirs are still mostly habitable with fungi and other very limited water based flora and fauna being used as a scarce food supply. Its in these caves that most of the human race has made their home, with the "wealthier" among them residing deep below and the "poorer" living closer to, or right on the surface. Most of the scrap heaps in the world are controlled by factions of riders, usually ones that have won many races. They include The Mud Pit; a heap surrounded by incredibly toxic waste and byproduct that is run by The Hoard which is a group of hallucinagetic crazed lunatics that drive incredibly unstable Hot Rods. They run on a oligarch system, wherein the one who has the most scrap and the best vehicle becomes the ruler, however, they can be overthrown usually quite violently and the cycle repeats. Another faction is The Iron Claw, another group of scavengers that have made their home in an abandoned iron mine. They operate strictly on a capitalistic society, trading gems and other trinkets to form something of a society. And another group that controls a majority of the forested areas of the world is The Druids, a mostly peaceful faction more focused on healing the world than racing for survival. It is rumored that they possess occult powers that tie them to the very earth itself, they say that those who try to find out what they're doing turn into the very trees they tend to. Apart from those 3 factions, there are several more that occupy territory and scarp heaps all over the world, each with their own unique characteristics and motivations.

The world is inhabited by regular humans, however some are a lot more insane than others. There is also The Druids, who are rumoured to not be human at all, the theories range from them being magically enhanced humans to a race of sentient fungus people. There is alsp speculation that The Iron Claw is actually a group of automatons created by the faction leader. The 3 main factions in this world hold significant territory, with The Hoard taking up territory in what used to be the center and west coast of the United States of America and some of Mexico, the Druids occupy the entirety of South America, more so in the area of what used to be The Amazon Rainforest. And finally The Iron Claw take up the east coast of america and a majority of what was Canada. And in between these factions are other factions that have taken up territory ranging from a couple of squre kilometers to entire states and provinces.

The main conflict between every faction is V Day, which is a massive, country wide race that every faction competes in. Riders will either create their own faction or join an existing one to be put on the roster for the race, the race can last for months and can be fatal. There are no rules only that you finish the race. Those who do finish the race are given incredible wealth and rewards, enough to set someone up for life or create their own empire. But no one knows who plans these races and no one knows where the prizes and money comes from. All people know is that V Day is a make or break event.

The Druids are the only faction that uses magic, they can use the power of the earth to reshape and rejuvenate the land. They are said to worship the gods of nature that are from a place called The Undergrowth. Though this comes at a price for them, mainly that the more they use the power the more they transform; their skin is replaced with bark, their hair turns to leaves, and by the end of it they have become a new being entirely, one that is rooted to the ground feeding the earth through their own natural preservation. They become living mummies, forever encased in wood and plant matter. Apart from them some people worship the very vehicles they drive, believing that it gives them power and an edge in the competition. Some have gone so far as to worship the very race itself, believing at is being controlled by higher celestial powers.

There is one plane that interacts with this world, and that is The Undergrowth, a mysterious dimension full of lush forests, flowing rivers, towering mountains, and the like. It is said this is where the Druids pull their power from, worshiping the gods that reside there.

Before the world shattered there were many conflicts and eras that came that caused the world to die, mainly The Great Oil War. Once the last oil reserve on the planet started flowing, every nation on earth started fighting for the last remaining scraps, it eventually led to nuclear bombs being detonated over every major city in the world. After that there was The Shattering, which was a series of major ecological and meteorological events that altered the course of nature. Seasons shifted and merged, biomes became unstable and ultimately uninhabitable and the world plummeted into chaos. Finally, many many years later the creation of the first major factions and V Day lifted the human race into a new era.

Since most currency was wiped out during the shattering people trade now with bones. The value of the bones differs depending on what species and part of the body the bone is from. Some examples would be a rhino skull is worth quite a bit, whereas a dog rib wouldn't be worth much. Usually, more delicate or hard to find bones are worth more, like skulls, toes, teeth ect. And the size of the animal is also a factor, larger animals are worth more than smaller ones. Artifacts from the old world are also traded although they are almost priceless if you find the right collector, much more rare and worth far more.

Most of The Waste Mile is lawless, though it can vary from scrap heap to scrap heap. Some have a more structured society such as The Iron Claw, but some are much more loose with rules such as The Hoard. But again there are far more scrap heaps around the world that are controlled by different factions that aren't the main 3, and they may have different rules and regulations. As for society, they mainly focus on survival and building vehicles for V Day, so adventuring is usually the norm with heaps usually sending out parties of people to scavenge, barter, collect information, and fight threats.

All 3 main factions are dangerous in their own right as all are fighting for survival, however there are more present threats in the world such as mutated creatures, roaming bandit groups, rogue factions, malfunctioning automatons, and the unpredictable weather of the world. And looming above it all is V Day, where everyone is your enemy.