Ground Zero
On April 26th, 1986, Reactor Four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, releasing dangerous radioactive material over a widespread area. Pripyat and the surrounding settlements were rapidly evacuated. Four-hundred square kilometres around the CNPP were cordoned off and labelled the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone — a man-made ecological disaster. For years, only sightseers and scientific expeditions passed through.
Rumours moved among those living close to the CEZ: strange phenomena around the CNPP, the abandoned city of Pripyat a hotspot for "anomalous" activity. In 2001 a small news story broke — a group of tourists vanished among the concrete and overgrowth. Quietly, the Ukrainian government sealed the Zone completely.
The Zone remained quiet — until, nineteen years later, it began to breathe again.
The Second Disaster
In late 2005 the Zone stirred. Unnatural forces were recorded — hurricane winds and tremors, all emanating from Reactor Four. The events escalated until 2006, when a blinding light illuminated the sky above the plant for two full hours before snapping off instantly, as if power were suddenly lost.
A month later it repeated. The clouds evaporated, a thunderous crash dragged on far too long, and after an ominous silence a 6.9-magnitude earthquake struck. Deadly energy disturbances raged through the Zone, making rescue impossible. Kiev learned the CEZ had grown five kilometres outward. This became known as The Second Disaster — and the first emission.
The State Security Service moved to destroy the Zone's centre with nuclear weapons. Without gear, detectors, or information, most troops were killed by anomalies before reaching their objective; those who reached the CNPP were destroyed by a second emission. The operation failed utterly, its survivors scattered and abandoned.
Into the Zone
By 2009 the first device able to detect anomalies was created. State Security and the newly formed Ecologists — scientists in specialised suits — travelled a kilometre into the Zone and returned unharmed. The success leaked, as these things do, into the wider population.
By early 2011 civilians had breached the perimeter in significant numbers. Classified as STALKERs, they formed groups, survived, and thrived — exploring far more efficiently than any state expedition. Seeking control of the CNPP, the military mounted a second raid by air, driven upward by a vast field blocking deeper travel. The stalkers named it the Brain Scorcher, for what it did to the mind: turning men zombie-like, repeating phrases robotically. The attack failed to yet another emission.
An artifact at the heart of the Zone that grants wishes — guarded by those willing to die for it.
Factions & Fanatics
As artifacts slipped into private hands, the government retaliated — over seventy stalkers arrested, ten trading posts shut. A large band vanished into the Brain Scorcher, and soon after, heavily armed, radicalised fighters emerged from it, killing all they saw. Rumour spread of a secret in the heart of the Zone: an artifact that grants wishes.
Orders went out to shoot any stalker on sight. In response, the clans defined themselves — green flecktarn patrols calling themselves Freedom, others in black and red calling themselves Duty. One would free the Zone; the other would destroy it. Some chose a cause, some stayed their own masters, and some preyed on their own kind for profit.
When a band of Free Stalkers passed the Scorcher unharmed and pushed deep, the Zone — "offended by their presence" — triggered a severe emission that reshaped nearly the entire landscape. Old paths choked with anomalies; new ones opened where anomalies vanished; some hazards became invisible to the naked eye.
The road north
Another massive emission threw the Zone into chaos. When the skies cleared, five State Security helicopters skimmed low over Garbage, Rostok and the Army Warehouses, heading north for the CNPP. Duty and Freedom mobilised everything they had. As a STALKER, the rumours you hear are true — the Brain Scorcher is disabled, the path to the north is open, and everything you could desire awaits there.
Apply to play →