The Relic Hunters
"The world is a phoenix. We only need to nurse the ashes back to life."
Introduction
The name was meant as a mockery. No one remembers who first used it, only that it was supposed to sneer at those naive-or foolish- enough to believe the world could still be saved. But the name stuck, and over time, many came to wear it with pride.
Relic Hunters.
The Cataclysm shattered cities, toppled nations, and left the world in ash, but it couldn’t erase mortal ingenuity. The Relic Hunters see this spark as the greatest treasure left behind.
Their legacy is not buried in ruins, but alive in the human mind, in its ability to adapt, to imagine, and to endure. They refuse to be devoured by the end, because they know:
As long as someone is still breathing, the end hasn’t come yet.
Who are the Relic Hunters?
Archivists of ruin. Dreamers of futures. Seekers of reality.
Some Relic Hunters search for blueprints. Others crave blue skies.
They are not an order. They are a scattered fellowship of sharp minds bound by a single heresy: the past is not dead. It is buried, and it is their task to dig it out and rebuild; one small miracle at a time.
They move with purpose through the wastelands, journals clutched close, ideas always forming. Some chase practical goals: adapting old knowledge to ease the struggles of daily life, offering fractured communities a flicker of normalcy. Others dream higher, treating every broken drone and fallen monument as scriptures.
They cultivate scarce resources. They rally minds. They seek to unite humanity and replace fear with vision. They are philosophers draped in survival gear. Inventors born of desperation. Beacons of light against the choking darkness. None claims to be a savior, but all know they might be the last drops of common sense in a land gone mad.
These are the Relic Hunters.
The people who look at the ruin and ask:
“What’s your story?”
Why become a Relic Hunter?
"I'm not trying to bring back the past. But I need enough of it to make a future.”
Imagination and hope.
This is the secret combination that makes a relic hunter.
The motive is neither courage nor strength. It is a relentless refusal to let meaning die alongside reality. The roads that lead to this life are plenty:
An eagerness for answers.
An itching need for understanding.
An endless quest for enlightenment.
A chase after the right question.
Theme Soundrack
- Hollowed: “People think the Immortals are the real monsters. That’s only because they haven’t met a Hollowed.”
- Reavers: “We’re trying to preserve what was lost. They’re trying to rule it; as if the past owes them something.”
- Scavengers: “Our best allies. Shame they worship solitude; together, we might actually rebuild.”
- Revenants: “They make excellent spies, which is exactly why we don’t trust them. But no one knows the Immortals better.”
- Immortals: “The architects of our downfall. Walking relics of a history that refused to end.”
- Mages: “They meant well. But regret and ruin broke their backs. We need them, whether they want to be needed or not.”
The enemy of a relic hunter is acceptance. They are restless, always daring to reach beyond the obvious, looking for the hidden. They are driven by wonder: What can be recovered? How can it be reinvented? How can we be reborn in this age of ash and blood?
Many call them aloof, naive, or helpless as the cling to the things that once failed to save humanity.
But they rarely care.
To be a relic hunter is to accept that progress may never come in your lifetime, yet to seek it anyway.
To teach, even when no one listens.
To build, even when the structure may fall.
To dream, even if the world is against you.
What the world thinks
- Hollowed: "Clutching broken dreams like relics will not save them from the truth."
- Scavengers: "Smart folks, if a bit too obsessed with ghosts, but I’d trade with one before trusting a Hollowed."
- Reavers: “They still think we can rebuild. Dreamers. Idealists. We broke the world because of people like them.”
- Revenants: "They peer into the past, hoping to change what even death could not."
- Immortals: "Dust worshiping dust... They are irrelevant."
- Mages: "Fools chasing fragments, yet... perhaps fools are what the world needs now."
Notable Relic Hunters
“If entropy had won, we wouldn’t be talking right now. So something still works."
Dr Isabela Lorne
Before the Cataclysm, she was a rising star in quantum mechanics. Now in her late 60s, she walks the ruins with a disquieting calm, always taking notes and solving equations. She speaks with brutal precision, often referencing ideas no one else understands anymore. She’s determined to reconstruct lost energy principles, convinced the Cataclysm was a symptom, not a cause.
Last Known Location: Outskirts of old Paris
Jannos Oxspar
Once a technician in a war-factory, Jannos now commands a hidden bunker-workshop. He crafts various tools and weapons and engraves each item with his signature rune. He trains younger relic hunters in the fundamentals of engineering. Stoic but kind, he’s respected as one of the few sane builders left who remembers what systems are supposed to look like.
Last Known Location: Zone 32, Old region of Greece
Clatch
No one knows Clatch’s real name. Wild-eyed, covered in smudges of smoke, and almost always talking to himself, he dwells in a junk fortress made from broken comms towers and train engines. He speaks in riddles, works in silence, and sometimes crafts machines that seem to anticipate problems before they arise. Relic Hunters go to him for impossible solutions... if they can stand the cost.
Last Known Location: Zone 12, near the ruins of Madrid
Tyrdal
Once a professor, Tyrdal now wanders the wastelands, keeping the knowledge of the old world alive. With a few salvaged books and his sharp mind, he teaches survivors the lessons of history, believing that humanity’s rebirth depends on remembering its past. He is relentless in his pursuit of forgotten knowledge, imparting wisdom with the hope that it will guide the future.
Last Known Location: Unidentified
The future lies ahead
In a world reduced to ash, the Relic Hunters are the last stewards of an age forgotten by most.
Driven by hope and the unyielding power of imagination, they search for the wisdom and innovation that can spark a rebirth. In the ruins, they are the architects of what could be, daring to ask the questions that might one day lead humanity out of darkness. Their journey is one of patience and vision; a quiet rebellion against a world that wants to forget.
They do not wait for salvation.
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Awesome as always, this template is definitely great. I like Isabella Lorne, would like to meet her someday. It seems the Relic Hunters would have a tendency to band together in small communities and try to rebuild the lost civilisation somewhere. Are there any place where a group attempted this? And are there any large scale project they are trying to set up or do they all survive on their own?
Thank you Rum! I'm very happy you are liking what I am doing here <3 Isabella is actually based in an amazing professor I had in uni when I studied physics. One of the brightest minds I ever encountered in my life. Your questions are so well placed. Yes they tend to band together either to research or to support the remaining communitites. I will need to think about the specifics but you gave me a great starting point with these questions! Thanks!