The World of Doom Saviors

The World of Doom Saviors

In Doom Saviors, the world as we know it is significantly different thanks to the existence of Doomers, who came to be public knowledge with the advent of the worldwide web, but are to known to have existed since the mid 20th century and possibly longer. Since then, in America, Doomers have faced consistent prejudice against them due to their strange powers and the narrative that these powers make them dangerous people. The term "Doomers" originally referred to the fact that they could potentially kill themselves with their own power, but has since evolved to be more of a derogatory moniker, though the Doomers still use the term themselves.

A few years before the beginning of the book, a secret task force was formed by the U.S Government called the "Anti-Doomer Militarized Squardron," or ADMS, which was formed in the event that Doomers became violent and needed to be "surpressed." However, the ADMS quickly became a weapon instead of a safeguard, and in the shadows they began to target Doomers with shady arrests, kidnappings, and sometimes straight enacting hits on Doomers considered too dangerous. 

As the ADMS broadened its operations, a new president was elected and promised to contain the dangerous Doomers and to protect citizens from them, and thus brought the ADMS out of the shadows and began what became an open genocide against Doomers as the ADMS grew rapidly and became practically its own army. Of course, Doomers began to resist, at first peacefully, but when it became clear that the ADMS was not looking to contain them through non-lethal means, violence began to spread. Currently, the ADMS and Doomers consider themselves at war, and the country is divided between those who believe Doomers to be a threat needing to be put down, and those who see them as victims of prejudice to an extreme scale, and believe the genocide whole unethical.

The story begins about a year after the official start of the genocide, with hundreds of Doomers having been killed by the ADMS, and many more gone missing. Tensions only continue to rise, and more and more Doomers are fighting back against tyranny. Throughout the country there is a surreal dichotomy as some cities have become completely occupied by the ADMS and essentially under their complete jurisdiction, some cities have been ravaged by war, and some cities remain completely unaffected and its citizens uncaring. 

Doomers

Doomers are people gifted with a supernatural power each unique to the individual most often recognized by their unnatural hair color. When a Doomer awakens to their power, referred to as "The Transformation," they are enveloped in a bright glow, and once it fades, they find that their hair color has changed to a color representative of their power, and is the same color they glow when they activate their powers. This is one of the most superficial ways to identify a Doomer, as most people in the modern day do not dye their hair to avoid being associated with Doomers. 

Another way to identify a Doomer is through "The Curse," which is applied to them when they use their power. The Curse manifests on their skin as a gray almost stone like substance that hardens once the adrenaline of using their power subsides, completely immobilizing any body part that is covered in it, though it begins to fade after about an hour, with mover coverage taking longer to completely disappear. The Curse is also what limits them from using their powers, as if they use their power so much that they get completely covered in the Curse, they permanently become petrified as a statue, which will then kill them as they dehydrate. The Curse always first appears on the same place and consistently spreads the same way every time, allowing Doomers to gauge their power use, though where it begins is different for each Doomer.

The greatest restriction for a Doomer, however, is known as The One Rule and is kept a secret among Doomers as best they can out of self-preservation. The One Rule is stated as "A Doomer cannot attack, only retaliate," meaning that if a Doomer ever physically harms someone before they attempt to do the same, they have broken this rule. Most Doomers seem to have almost a sixth sense that helps them judge when they can attack, and some have reported even hearing a small voice in their head when they were about to break it. 

There are, of course, ways around The One Rule, mostly by taunting or tricking an enemy into attack them first and then dodging, as an enemy does not actually have to hit you, only attempt to. This is how Doomers engage in combat with each other, both purposely missing the other if they wish they fight, and then engaging in combat. Of course, this doesn't always work, because if one party wishes, they can always just not retaliate, thus never beginning the fight.

The consequences of breaking The One Rule is that a Doomer loses their power and is unable to activate their power ever again, unless they preform "The Sacrifice," which is completed by killing someone you love. Obviously, it is a steep price to pay, and most Doomers do not preform The Sacrifice. The problem is, Doomers who don't regain their power reportedly suffer immensely, information on that is extremely limited and seems to vary from person to person.

In terms of how someone becomes a Doomer, it isn't very clear, and study of Doomers have been severely slowed, at least in America, due to the Genocide. One thing that is noticed is that siblings seem to have a high chance of being a Doomer if one sibling is also one, thus the current leading theory is that it perhaps has something to do with genetics. It's estimated that 1 in 10,000 in America are Doomers, making them a very noticeable minority, and its considered rare to run into one.