Alumni Lore

GENESIS (Pre-Flash Era)

Founded in 1987, the Lake Erie Institute of Technology and Research was regarded as a relatively modern and promising small-scale institution of higher education located in one of the most isolated regions in the United States. Serving a modest student body,  the Lake Erie Institute of Technology and Research prided itself on the strong ties forged within its remote community that heavily contributed to the school's astounding intellectual achievement.

In 2028, the Lake Erie Institute of Technology and Research began to cement itself as one of the country's most prestigious and technologically innovative colleges after a significant breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence.  The Lake Erie Institute of Technology and Research directly challenged adversarial universities that had consistently topped academic rankings for decades. However, their astute minds would eventually catch the attention of a group of higher-status later in the future that would drastically change the institute’s course. 

SONOS BELLI (Pre-Flash Era)

During the 2050s, rapidly changing geopolitics and growing conflict amongst nations became clear and the prediction of humanity's future narrowed. The globe was on a brink of war and the United States government eagerly strived to be a step ahead of the game. The government took an interest in the college, wanting to take leverage of their advanced innovations in preparation for the inevitable war. In 2059, the government, including certain philanthropists, allocated funds to the college to begin the construction of a bunker that would house confidential military projects ranging from weapon designs to theoretical weapons of mass destruction.

Military personnel were dispatched afterward to the college to act as sentries. Their growing presence there roused concern from both the student body and faculty members. When the flames of war sparked in the 2060s, the government predicts that the dawning of a nuclear holocaust is inevitable. With humanity’s time running out, the government unveiled the bunker to the campus in 2071. Questions regarding the reveal had little time to manifest before the day of the apocalypse.

GABRIEL'S HORN (Nuclear Winter Era)

Before the first warnings of incoming nuclear warheads were even publicized, soldiers rushed into classrooms, threatening students and professors toward the bunker. Blaring sirens intermixed with haunting screams were silenced instantly as the bunker's blast doors sealed shut behind the last asylum seeker. A brief quake followed--their final message from the outside world. After the initial shock and hysterical panic were given time to subside, they probed the bunker's depths. Their discoveries exceeded their expectations. 

There were epicenters of knowledge, products of their innovation, massive data storage networks, and stockpiles of rations that would last for a few decades. The survivors saw it as a blessing in the beginning, but as some time passed, they grew aimless - unsure if they would have a future while the surface above was undoubtedly destroyed. But eventually a hopeful idea brewed within the bunker. The people together devised a plan for what they would do in the future as people of immense knowledge. One enough time had passed they would band together, exit the bunker and rebuild the world.

INVISIBLIS MANUS (Nuclear Winter Era)

To help direct and organize people early on, the residents of the bunker decided to elect multiple leaders who would work together for the benefit of humanity. In passing remembrance for their past as an institution of learning they were named the Assembly Directors later on to become the Executive Directorate. Though not all acted upon their direction, all of the bunker's inhabitants worked together in preparation for their emergence. Increasing birth rates occurred halfway through the next decade and the bunker’s capacity rate was becoming finite. This would lead the Directors to announce their resurfacing plan to the survivors.

The Directors would create two classes of people that would make up their envisioned new society: Salutatorians, ones who would willfully live a life of ignorance and serve to protect their companions; and Valedictorians, ones who would dedicate their existence to scholarly matters, receiving bountiful education in their youth before applying their knowledge later in life. A draft was established where upon birth, one's class & subsequent, lifelong career would be chosen via a selected committee. This is how it was initially to help move things along, but as it stands people select their own careers now. 

FIAT LUX (Radstorm Era)

All this was done in preparation for the day they would rise to the surface. On October 3rd, 2112, the bunker's second generation of inhabitants would make their presence in the new world. They would apply the knowledge granted to them, rising like a beacon of light in a presumably dim world that would be in great need of their innovation and guidance.  Rudimentary drones were used in the earliest attempts to probe the outside world, but most were lost before they could send back any relevant data. Hence they decided to conduct physical expeditions. 

A squad of Salutatorians was dispatched from the shelter. The reconnaissance was brief and had to be followed up in cautious missions over the next several months. Hostilities were engaged against savage squatters infesting the college’s ruins. This very encounter troubled the group, worried that the world had regressed to the stone age. The Salutatorians continued their expedition in the surrounding areas of the college for a brief time before they returned with dreadful news. 

ALUMNI'S ADVENT (Federal Era)

The group’s fears proved true: Earth had fallen prey to ignorance. Feral tribals, malignant raiders, and disfigured mutants prowled the ruins of Sunrise City. Radiation storms drifted through the land like a biblical pestilence. It was almost enough to drive them back to the safety of their bunker. They came to the realization that the responsibility of rebuilding civilization fell into their hands. Though overwhelmed, they continued the process of establishing a hospitable base out of the old campus grounds with renewed vigor.

In 2121, Valedictorians discovered near-emptied archives that revealed the bunker’s pre-flash projects. This, including their encounters with savages equipped with dangerous tech, were catalysts that led to the creation of The Alumni. They proclaimed their missions across the islands to rid the wasteland of dangerous technologies not fit for those who possess them and to bring back a semblance of the old world by using the pre-flash knowledge they hold deep within their libraries. This day we deemed the Day of Renewal.

TEMPUS CONFLICTUS (Union Era)

Now, the so-called Third Generation of the Alumni now lead the forefront of the faction, fervently carrying their predecessors' beliefs and ideals. In the past three decades, the Alumni have gradually expanded themselves outside the safety of Sanctum, attempting to manifest their search for technology and promoting their convictions across the Sunrise Isles. However, the third generation soon found themselves faced with two obstacles that hindered their expansion on the isles in the 2150s; the United States Reclamation Force (USRF) and the Coalition.

With the arrival of the USRF, the Alumni saw them as nothing more but an obstacle in their expansion to the North. The two factions now bordered one another, causing tensions to continuously rise until a sudden border conflict erupted. These border conflicts lasted for a few years until the end of the decade in 2160. Choosing to prevent any future conflicts, the two factions deliberated on possible solutions until it was decided they would utilize a shared radio channel to keep order upon the border, hopefully preventing any future conflicts from arising.

On the other hand, the arrival of the Coalition's Bargetown in 2147 led to the steep decline of trade and commerce within the Alumni's Sanctum. The once sought for exports of the Alumni soon fell out of interest with Sunrise islanders, as they sought refuge with the Coalition and their more economically suitable Bargetown.  As such, envy struck Sanctum, as the two new factions reserved swathes of previously Alumni influenced lands, the now Coalition operating and, by all accounts owning the bridge needed to cross into the Northern Island territories that the USRF also additionally claimed for themselves. The Alumni soon began to view external forces coming to the island as unknown dangers and, stricken with paranoia, Sanctum pulled its doors closed.

Recessus (Union Era)

Despite the conflict with the USRF and the Coalitions arrival, by 2162 the Alumni still held a large portion of the Southern Island. The Alumni and their christened fort, The Sanctum, continue to serve as an academic enclave in a sea of nescience. The famed President Arlington then dissuaded the faction from their expansionist views to that of isolationism, choosing to stay within the regions in which they claimed. Alumni's elitist views, as a result, only grew more extreme, causing internal strife between the elitists and those those that wished to pursue expansionist ideals. The Alumni continued to carry their sense of superiority over the common wastelander until the eventual death of President Arlington within the same year. 

Now, in the year 2164, the Alumni has turned away from their isolationist and elitist views, with President Lucious being elected the previous year. The new president sought to refurbish what was left of Sanctum, once more opening the gates up for trade and commerce while tasking various Alumnites with mission venturing deeper into the island's wasteland. Instead of aggressively stealing technology from wastelanders as they sought before, the Alumni now choose to trade for it; instead of seeing the common wastelander as lesser, they now see them as equals. The Alumni only continue to grow past their once selfish ways into something they could further be proud of, no longer a shadow of their former self.
                                                   We Remain