The Zone

The Zone stretches between the borders of Ukraine and Belarus, and is kept protected by the Ukrainian authorities. Due to the radical decrease in human presence and activity, wildlife has flourished in the Zone and the area is often described as having been "reclaimed by nature". Following the 2006 disaster, animals and plants have been grotesquely mutated and deadly anomalies abound. Supposedly, the area is kept under lockdown by the military. However, the prospect of lucrative looting and treasure hunting has led a large number of opportunists known as S.T.A.L.K.E.R.s (or Stalkers) to jump fence into The Zone itself. These people are either operating for themselves, or in factions. Research is constantly ongoing to find out the nature and origin of The Zone, as well as a means to counter it. There are many different beliefs concerning the truth of, and reasonable response to, The Zone. For example, Duty members are attempting to "fight the Zone," preferring to ultimately see its destruction, while Freedom believes that the entire area is a gift to mankind and should be shared equally by all of humanity.

The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone is inhabited by multiple factions, the major ones being Duty, Freedom, Mercenaries, Monolith, Scientists, Lone Stalkers, and the Ukrainian Army. Duty believes the Zone should be destroyed. Freedom believes the Zone should be preserved. The Mercenaries fight and kill for profit. The Monolith believe the Zone should be worshipped, and have a special cult-like dedication to the Zone which allow them passive resistance to some anomalies. Scientists wish to study the zone, and are highly pacifist. The Army simply wishes to contain the Zone and maintain its borders. The Zone itself is riddled with dangerous geographical, temporal, and spatial anomalies that can easily kill a man.

All factions are human, but the Zone is riddled with mutants and monsters. Psychic mutants may poison a man's mind, while Snorks can rip him apart physically. The Zone is filled with these monsters and only clever Stalkers may survive.

The stalkers belonging to Duty and Freedom are mutual enemies. The Ukrainian Army is hostile to everyone except Duty. Lone Stalkers are hostile to the Army and Duty. The Mercenaries can be friendly or hostile to any faction depending on what contracts they are taking. Monolith Faction is hostile to everyone. The Scientists are friendly to everyone except Monolith.

There are no real magics in the Zone, but the "Soul" of the Zone, known as the "Monolith" (which is what the Monolith Faction worships) has extreme psychic power. Periodically, the Monolith exudes a wave of psychic potential known as an "Emission" which can render any poor Stalker caught outside brain-dead or zombified. Certain mutants also have psychic powers, such as the "Controller", which can cause a man to kill himself through psychic attack. The Controller can only influence Stalkers when they are in its line of sight.

The Zone is chocked full of spatial and temporal anomalies, not all of which are known. The Zone is a very dangerous place and one who is not careful may find themselves killed, or worse.

Before the 1986 disaster, the remote areas around Chernobyl and Pripyat were used by the Soviet Union for research and development of psychotropic weapons and study of the noosphere.[1] One of the earliest such programs was undertaken at Limansk-13, a secret city where top Soviet scientists experimented with radiowaves, in order to harness them as a tool, to create unflinching loyalty to the Union in all affected people. However, the research was not safe. A surge in energy consumption during one of the experiments on April 26, 1986 was one of the main reasons Reactor 4 exploded. In response to the incident, the USSR evacuated Pripyat and settlements in the neighboring areas, until the Zone became almost totally deserted, save for a few die hard citizens (including the Forester) and scientific teams working in secret laboratories. For them, the incident came as a blessing, as the now-empty Zone of Alienation proved to be the perfect proving ground and laboratories became twice as active.[2] The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 did nothing to hinder their work, to the contrary - the weakened government of independent Ukraine proved to be unable to investigate rumors of strange experiments taking place in the Zone and put a stop to them. The scientists continued their research into the noosphere unabated. Soon, breakthroughs took place and they began the search to psychically influence humanity using the noosphere on a global scale. The science team, driven by noble intentions, wanted to eliminate war, injustice and conflict through their research into changing the human psyche[2]. Any atrocities that occured on the way were a necessary evil[3]. Regardless, the area around Chernobyl was relatively peaceful until sometime around 2001, when a bus full of tourists in the zone disappeared. The incident prompted the government to fully restrict the zone to civilians. In 2011, stalkers reported encountering zombies who spoke garbled English, revealing the fate of the tourists. The first experiment in affecting human psyche on a massive scale took place on March 4, 2006[4]. It lasted two full hours before it was shut down, likely due to unforeseen developments. A month later, on April 12, the experiment was performed again and this time it continued until its completion[5]. However, it did not have the desired effect - instead, the generators created a rift in the noosphere, allowing it to directly affect the biosphere, creating a large area where physical laws were outright broken and mysterious phenomena not understood by modern science began to manifest. Despite the catastrophic nature of the incident, the scientists responsible lived. In the aftermath, disputes on how to handle the incident led to half the scientists leaving to form Clear Sky, in order to research the Zone and find a way to remove or contain the rift. The remaining half remained in the laboratories and, using available technology, merged into the C-Consciousness. They believed that the problem could be solved by studying the noosphere further and learning how to suppress it. Indeed, they soon learned how to control it, but with control came a price - the energy was so immense that they had to periodically release the excess, lest they be overwhelmed by it. Such a release became known to the inhabitants of the Zone as a blowout or emission. On June 10, 2006 the very first emission occurred. Unprepared military and scientific personnel were instantly obliterated while the zone expanded a further 5 kilometers. Realizing that they needed more time to find a solution, the scientists created a defense perimeter to protect them against intruders. The primary element of this psychic defense network was the Brain Scorcher, an experimental psi-antennae outside Pripyat. When activated, any human that came into its range was mind controlled by the C-Consciousness and joined the ranks of their agents. Secondary elements were the Monolith and its protectors - one lured stalkers into the center of the Zone with promises of wealth and wishes coming true, the second actively raided stalkers and defended research facilities, lest unauthorized people learn the secrets of the C-Consciousness.[2] In 2007, the Ukrainian government sent out expeditions into the zone, most of them ending in failure after the explorers were killed by mutants and anomalies. In 2010, the "stalker phenomenon" was becoming more evident. It was theorized that the zone was home to around 300 individuals who called themselves "stalkers" who made money by selling artifacts. In 2011, the stalker population began to grow despite the military's efforts to cordon the zone. On October 25, 2011 the very first skirmish between stalkers and the military occurred, which prompted the military to shoot stalkers on sight. Strelok's Group managed to penetrate the center of the zone and survive, triggering the second largest emission to happen in the zone's history, with a mercenary named "Scar" managing to survive it without cover. During this time the Clear Sky faction was also destroyed in a massive blowout at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, when they attempted to stop Strelok's third incursion into the Zone. In 2012, Strelok managed to deactivate the infamous Brain Scorcher and destroy the C-Consciousness. Despite this the zone did not disappear, meaning that the damage done by C-Consciousness may be permanent. In the wake of this opportunity, the military launched: Operation Fairway, under the command of Colonel Kovalsky whose task was to secure the Chernobyl NPP with a battalion of Spetsnaz operators, transported in 5 gunships called Stingrays. Despite all the planning and precautions made, the operation ultimately failed after all the gunships were either downed by airborne anomalies or shot down by Monolith troops. Major Degtyarev was then sent to investigate the operation's failure, where he arrived at Zaton on August 1, 2012 which is the actual start of his investigation. Present Day: Stalkers fight in vain for control of the Zone, which has, and will always be, autonomous in its own way.

Friendly factions may trade with one another, and Lone Stalkers may trade to anyone. Everyone is trying to survive, so bartering is commonplace. The common currency is Russian Roubles.

There is no true law, and different factions handle punishment according to their own personal moral codes.

Flesh Mutant: A mutant pig of this type, known as a "Flesh" among stalkers, is one of the clearest examples of the Zone's perversion of nature. The pigs have developed a protective layer of scales and bones, their regeneration potential grew significantly and their nervous system became more complex. They also possess insect-like legs with sharp ends that they can use to dig and defend themselves. A side benefit of this mutation is their enlarged eye, which can see in a greater spectrum of light and has olfactory receptors within (in layman's terms, the Flesh can smell with its eyes). Bloodsucker: The Bloodsucker is a semi-legendary creature, often used by stalkers as a symbol of both the dangers and corruption of the Zone. This status has been achieved thanks to the species' relative rarity, as well as the fact that few humans who encounter Bloodsuckers survive to tell of it. Bloodsuckers appear as tall humanoid mutants, with four tentacles originating from where the mouth would be. They are hairless, earless and their body is rather thin, showing off some of their bones such as their ribcage and spine, although they have a pronounced muscle mass, especially around the arms and legs, explaining their physical strength. Each individual has evidence of severe decomposition – bits of flesh appear to be rotting and sloughing off their body. All specimens seem to lack skulls as the skin on their heads peels away in areas, exposing the brain underneath. This may explain their lack of any sign of sentience or reasoning capability. They also have rather large hands with lengthy fingers and and sharp nails, which represent their main method of attack, while their feet appear to have noticeably mutated, possessing only three toes with lengthy claws. Poltergeists: Poltergeists are extremely deceiving for rookie stalkers as they do not appear threatening; they only appear as a ball of electricity. However they can be killed with conventional weaponry just by shooting at the ball of lightning. Poltergeists will attack with anything that's not tied to the ground by utilizing their telekinetic powers to throw objects at the stalker (e.g., buckets, barrels, ammo boxes, crates, discarded firearms). However, it can also be that they can manipulate gravity similar to that of Vortex anomalies. Psuedogiants: Pseudogiants are very unique in the Zone's fauna, as they seem to be heavily-mutated humans. Pseudogiants are incredibly tough enemies which can withstand large amounts of damage before being killed, and are very dangerous to unprepared stalkers due to their ability to deal a large amount of damage when it attacks. The Pseudogiant uses four attacks: a headbutt; a swing/grab with one of its muscled arms; a surprisingly effective stab from its smaller, clawed arms; and a ground pound that creates a damaging impact shockwave. The first three attacks can be avoided by being out of range, and the last area-of-effect attack can be avoided by jumping just before it pounds the ground. Burers: Burers are stocky, almost dwarf-like monsters that tend to stick to underground sections, avoiding light at all costs. They can be mistaken for bandits at first, due to their propensity for wearing long black trenchcoats, but are a far greater threat, able to paralyze and break an opponent's armor and weapon at will (although they never do so in-game). The Burers are not easy opponents even for experienced stalkers, made even more difficult due to their preference to travel in pairs or groups. Burers also have a peculiar ability to mimic the cry of a child to lure curious prey. Snorks: The snork is a horrifically mutated human soldier or Stalker, still wearing the tattered remains of his uniform, boots, a gas mask with cracked eyepieces, and a flailing hose. The gas mask the snork wears shows characteristics of both the Soviet GP-4 and SHM-62u civilian gas masks. It retains the grey color and rubber hood of the SHM-62u and the hose, exhale valve, and the tissot tube-less design of the GP-4. Exposure to radiation and anomalies in the wake of the second Chernobyl disaster has destroyed the human mind, leaving a feral, vicious beast psyche and a twisted body in its place, creating a dangerous predator. Snorks were first encountered on May 22, 2007, near one of the army posts at the 30th kilometer of the Zone, on the Kharkov side. An officer waiting for his shiftman's car near the post's gate was attacked by a snork, which slaughtered him with the rusty remains of a Izh 91 shotgun. The mutant was promptly gunned down by other soldiers. Zombiefied Stalkers: Stalkers undergo zombification under prolonged exposure to a Psy-field such as those in Yantar and the Red Forest. Hallucinations, psychosis, fatigue, amnesia and severe pain were all symptoms faced by careless Stalkers who exposed themselves to the fields without proper protection, and those who remained for extended periods suffered a most terrible fate, either succumbing to the emission's influence and becoming members of the Monolith or becoming zombified stalkers. Zombified Stalkers are husks that wander the Zone, some as far as the perimeter, holding onto whatever memories of their former lives remain, until even they are lost. They are often heard mumbling incoherent, broken sentences and crying to themselves. They possess crude forms of communication, as they can be heard calling on other Zombified Stalkers when spotting an enemy. In spite of their name, Zombified Stalkers are not actual 'zombies' as defined by popular culture, they are more like husks. Hollow shells of what once was, stripped of reason or thought and turned into mindless slaves. Zombies are basically ordinary stalkers that have been exposed to enormous amounts of radiation and Psi-waves, and haven't had the good fortune to die. They are technically still alive by medical standards at least, but their overall conscious behaviour has been surgically removed, replaced by animal instinct, hence - husk. They cannot be labeled as actual 'undead' because only the brain was affected by the Emission, not the body. They clumsily operate firearms and maintain little tactical awareness, blindly charging into the fray and relentlessly assaulting the player in great numbers with no regard for self preservation. Their vision and reaction times have been severely inhibited, with them unable to pinpoint most anomalies and their combat abilities crippled at longer ranges. Controllers: The Controller's main ability is to launch a psychic bolt that deals high telepathy/psionic-based damage to the player from a great distance. In addition, Controllers seem to generate a small psy-field that affects the player's ability to aim and causes anyone close by to slowly lose their mind. There is a high-pitched audio cue before the psychic attack actually happens and avoiding visual contact with the Controller can prevent that from happening. A player may die if struck by a sufficient number of bolts or if they stay around the Controller for too long. For some reason, if the player gets too close to the Controller, it will cease to launch bolts and uselessly try to walk away from him, which is the greatest opportunity of attack. On the "Master" difficulty level, the Controller is extremely dangerous as its bolts have a chance of killing the player in one shot. This is especially common in Shadow of Chernobyl where there is no way to reduce psionic damage through armor or use of artifacts. In general, Controllers are extremely dangerous and should be eliminated as soon as possible due to their abilities that can cause instant death. The Monolith: The Wish Granter (also referred to as The Monolith) is said to be an entity that grants the wishes of those worthy enough to reach its resting place deep within the bowels of the Sarcophagus at the Chernobyl NPP. In reality, it is a powerful device built by the C-Consciousness as their last line of defense against intruders. Standing within the ruined reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the Wish Granter is a legend among many Stalkers of the Zone. Rumors say that the Monolith will grant any wish given, starting from eternal glory to limitless power. In reality, however, it is much more sinister. The Wish Granter is a trap created by the C-Consciousness to protect their secret. After a 'wish' has been granted, the Zone expands by 5 km in all directions. The wish 'granted' is an illusion or a violent trick, often brainwashing the victim into seeing the Wish Granter as a divine being and turning them into a Monolith cultist in service of the C-Consciousness, willingly or not. Not many have reached the Wish Granter, and there are no confirmed reports of anyone coming back after visiting it without facing death, insanity, or Monolith brainwashing. One possible exception could be the Doctor who, as rumor has it, managed to reach it and come back alive still as a human. However, this is just a tale or a myth that became a part of local folklore rather than a fact.