Setting
The alternate history of the Resistance series diverges from current history primarily at the end of the Spanish-American War, and an alternate World War I leading to a prosperous European alliance and worldwide peace, preventing the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and World War II, but also leading to the rise of an isolationist Russian Empire, one that is still under Tsarist rule as Lenin's revolution was crushed.
However, a new menace arises from Siberia, with the epicenter corresponding to the time and location of the Tunguska event of 1908. In 1921, Russia initiated a communications blackout with the rest of the world, and built a wall against its European border called the "Red Curtain". Word spreads of small towns, villages, and eventually cities in Russia and Eastern Europe that are destroyed within a single night. A strange cold front also develops over Russia and spreads outwards. European intelligence agencies attempt to listen in on Russian radio stations, only to hear a single message repeated over and over: "Brotherhood, Strength, and Fortitude...in the face of the angry night."
In December 1949, the Red Curtain is suddenly breached by numerous Chimeran forces. The Chimera overrun continental Europe by February 1950, leaving very few survivors. The Chimera then proceed to dig underneath the English Channel, invading Britain in late 1950. The bulk of the British forces are wiped out, with the rest fleeing to scattered bases in the northern parts of England.
Some time after the invasion of England the SRPA (Special Research Projects Administration) begins experimenting with the virus, supposedly in order to find a cure. It is never revealed whether they are really attempting to find a cure for the virus or are simply attempting to create a group of superhumans just as Malikov did with the Cloven. This project is known as Project Abraham.
There are only two known locations where Project Abraham took place. One was an unspecified military facility in Alaska and another in Bryce Canyon, Utah. Out of the viral website it is known that the only survivors are Joseph Capelli and Nathan Hale. They are both later transferred into Sentinel Squad Echo.
After the events of Project Abraham, the soldiers who were infected with the Chimeran virus were formed into an elite squad known as Sentinels.
Read more about this topic: Resistance (series)
Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“The trees stand in the setting sun,
I in their freckled shade
Regard the cavalcade of sin,
Remorse for foolish action done,
That pass like ghosts regardless, in
A human image made....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Dandyism is the last flicker of heroism in decadent ages.... Dandyism is a setting sun; like the declining star, it is magnificent, without heat and full of melancholy. But alas! the rising tide of democracy, which spreads everywhere and reduces everything to the same level, is daily carrying away these last champions of human pride, and submerging, in the waters of oblivion, the last traces of these remarkable myrmidons.”
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The new sound-sphere is global. It ripples at great speed across languages, ideologies, frontiers and races.... The economics of this musical esperanto is staggering. Rock and pop breed concentric worlds of fashion, setting and life-style. Popular music has brought with it sociologies of private and public manner, of group solidarity. The politics of Eden come loud.”
—George Steiner (b. 1929)