Carrie Ridley

Carrie's Story

On the great slopes of the Appalachian Craters, one must be careful as they climb. The thick tar, molten lava, and massive sap deposits threaten to ensnare and destroy any uncareful passerby.

 

Like mosquitos entombed in amber, the steep cliffs of the craters are lined with the bodies left behind from animals and people alike. Considered the most desolate valley in the known world, it takes pure genius to navigate its perilous features.

 

But what is a genius?

 

A genius grandmaster may play 10,000 games of chess in their lifetimes. By then they can play with their eyes closed, and know every possible play in every conceivable situation.

 

A genius strategist may look over a battlefield, and see before them arrangements of soldiers, fighting in patterns and in such a flow of battle that the strategist would have recognized the shifting tides of war from the years spent studying warfare.

 

But the grandmaster just sits behind his board, and returns home after his tournaments. The strategist too, although instrumental to the battles he leads, will never fear for his own life.

 

A true master of their craft has stakes in what they do.

 

So what does it mean to master the Appalachian Craters? To be a master of the slopes? What does it mean to pace and traverse through the great jungles and to hunt without mercy?

 

To be a master of this world, and to fight quickly and calmly, like a bolt of lightning striking through a body of water, takes struggle.

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Carrie Ridley was born into this world.

 

Like most of the people she comes across, however few of them she ever sees again, she never knew planet Earth before the reckoning. She’s heard the myths and the stories. She’s discovered, destroyed, and sold artifacts from a more simple time before her. She has ideas about how the world may have seemed before her arrival. She has killed beasts for food and for sport, and in their eyes she recognizes a docile farm animal she’s heard stories of from those much older than her.

 

But this world, where the sun is blocked by a thick layer of canopy, where the rivers run rapidly and rampant, and where dragonflies are the size of actual dragons, is her home.

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Carrie was cared for by a group of survivors from a young age. Most of her elders had survived the reckoning. They had culture, music, and beautiful traditions. But they still held desire, and fear.

 

They were caught in a sensational cycle of denial. They held onto their dreams of their past, what life was like when they were comfortable. As Carrie grew older, she came to resent those she cohabited with.

 

She hated the tribe of survivors, and she hated how little they did to live beyond their dark and secluded caves. She wanted to do more than just survive.

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She went on her own journey, killing her own food and skinning beasts to make her own clothes. Carrie forged her own weapons from artifacts left behind in the old cities and wielded powerful metals that rose from the mantle through the craters.

 

She could traverse the slopes easily. Every step was a careful leap of faith and another shot of adrenaline. She knew she could find her purpose in places like this. She knew that she could push herself to higher limits, and to conquer the landscape around her.

 

She knew that she could really make a home out of this world. But she’s traveled now, possibly a decade, alone and in solitude. As time has passed, she’s encountered fewer and fewer people.

 

Her reputation has grown, and combat with tribes and vandals have grown more frequent.

 

The pressures of the ever-growing jungle, alongside the increasing dangers of those more violent and deceitful than her, have pushed Carrie to seek out others that could help bring her to a better life. 

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Carrie Ridley is a master of her world, a killer of every beast, and a friend to none.