Overview
The Great War is an endless trench network where the ground itself remembers every battle fought upon it. Mud, blood, smoke, and shattered steel stretch toward a horizon that never arrives. The air reeks of rusted iron, decay, oil, and burned powder. Flares occasionally split the sky, revealing endless lines of corpses frozen mid-charge.
When the sirens blare, artillery begins to fall, and the dead rise again.
Each trench is filled with rotted uniforms, rusted rifles, broken helmets, and half-buried banners. The soldiers who remain no longer remember their names, nations, or causes, but they still follow orders. Whistles shriek. Mortars thump. The cries of the dead echo across the battlefield like a ritual that has forgotten how to end.
Access / Entry Conditions
The Great War is usually accessed through ruined tunnels, bunker doors, battlefield fog, collapsed subway routes, or war-damaged structures in other Nodes. Some Divers report entering after hearing distant artillery where no battlefield should exist.
Entry is often sudden. A normal hallway may open into a trench. A fog bank may clear into Dead Man’s Land. Once inside, retreat routes rarely remain stable, and travelers may be forced to survive at least one war cycle before an exit appears.
Environment / Layout
The Node consists of endless trenches, flooded dugouts, barbed wire fields, shell craters, bunkers, artillery pits, and ruined command posts. The sky is permanently darkened by smoke, storm clouds, and drifting ash.
Dead Man’s Land separates opposing trench lines, though the actual factions are unclear. Some areas contain collapsed bunkers, gas-filled sectors, corpse piles, minefields, and abandoned field hospitals.
The layout changes after each artillery cycle. Trenches collapse, new routes open, bunkers vanish, and entire sectors may be buried or flooded. Maps are only useful for a single cycle at most.
Anomaly Behavior
- Eternal Conflict: The Node loops through a repeating war cycle. After each siren, bombardment, and charge, the battlefield resets with new dead, altered trench lines, and reanimated soldiers.
- Faction Recognition: Uniformed Zombies primarily attack those not wearing their faction’s uniform. Wearing a matching uniform may prevent immediate aggression, but it can also cause the wearer to receive “friendly” commands from the dead.
- Whistle Command: The sound of a whistle signals the arrival or influence of The Captain. Nearby undead begin forming ranks and preparing to charge.
- Artillery Cycle: Once per cycle, a deep siren blares before a massive artillery strike falls across Dead Man’s Land and unstable trench sectors. No confirmed safe zone has survived a direct strike.
- Weather Instability: Heavy rainfall, fog, ash storms, and mud surges regularly obscure the battlefield. In extreme cases, entire trench sectors flood for hours.
- Zeppelin Loop: Shadows of zeppelins and early aircraft drift overhead in repeating patterns. They never fully crash, vanish, or land, though their shadows may trigger entity movement.
- Barbed Wire Migration: Sections of barbed wire crawl slowly across the battlefield, tangling bodies, weapons, and anything that remains still for too long.
Objects of Interest
- Trench Radios: Old radios that occasionally transmit distorted orders, coordinates, pleas for extraction, or voices of missing Divers. No confirmed source has been located.
- Abandoned Field Bunkers: Reinforced shelters that may contain munitions, relics, maps, journals, or records from previous war cycles.
- Gas Zones: Clouds of green mist that dissolve flesh, disrupt Diver memory, and cause hallucinations of old battles.
- Fallen Banners: Torn symbols marking factional divisions. Wearing or carrying these banners can alter how undead soldiers respond.
- Field Hospitals: Ruined medical tents or bunkers filled with surgical tools, empty beds, and bodies that sometimes begin breathing again during siren events.
Entities
- The Captain: A decayed officer in a tattered uniform, carrying a rusted whistle and flare gun. His whistle rallies nearby undead into formation, while his flare marks targets for artillery. His presence usually precedes a massive surge of zombie activity.
- Uniformed Zombies: Undead soldiers wearing mismatched uniforms from forgotten armies. They can partially use rifles, bayonets, grenades, and formation tactics. They usually attack anything not recognized as part of their faction.
- Harvesters: Tank-like, half-living war machines that drag corpses into their armor. The bodies inside fuel their movement. They fire explosive shells indiscriminately, often targeting movement, light, or large groups.
- Gas Mask Soldiers: Silent humanoids wearing pristine gas masks and unidentifiable uniforms. They rarely engage directly. Instead, they observe and record the battlefield with unknown devices. Their origin is unclear, and some believe they are external observers, Diver projections, or agents of the Node itself.
Survival Rules / Countermeasures
- Do not cross Dead Man’s Land after the siren begins.
- Avoid open light during artillery cycles.
- Never assume a bunker will survive a direct strike.
- Do not wear a faction uniform unless prepared to follow the commands it attracts.
- If a whistle sounds nearby, leave the area before the charge begins.
- Do not remain still near migrating barbed wire.
- Avoid gas zones unless equipped with sealed masks and memory anchors.
- Do not answer trench radios using your real name.
Current Status
The Great War remains active and highly unstable. It is considered a repeating conflict Node with extreme environmental hazards, organized undead activity, and battlefield-wide reset events.
Diver access is possible but dangerous. Most successful expeditions are short, heavily equipped, and focused on retrieving relics, records, or munitions before the next artillery cycle begins.