MORE IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: I am not a medical professional. Take EVERYTHING I say about the Wuhan coronavirus with planet-sized salt.
Before I start, let me say that I have nothing against the Chinese people as a whole. My mother and grandparents are part-Chinese, and the Philippines has good diplomatic relations with China.
It's just that Wuhan coronavirus news just keeps biting me in the butt again and again. Every time I see a related news report or blogger commentary, I think of the blasted root causes of the problem, including weird animal meats like those of bats and snakes being sold in Wuhan, some Chinese people eating bat soup, and the Chinese government covering up this virus. According to Zhou et al. (2020), "2019-nCoV is 96% identical at the whole-genome level to a bat coronavirus."
Bats have always been a mild annoyance in my Minecraft playthroughs. Sometimes, they just get in my way while I'm holding the left mouse button to mine something, forcing me to temporarily stop mining. Sometimes, I accidentally hit them with my pickaxe, wasting 2 durability that could've been used to mine 2 precious ores. At worst, bats can randomly "shield" hostile mobs, allowing them to get closer to me while I'm unable to knock them back...especially if one of the hostile mobs I'm fighting is a creeper.
On late February, when "Inside the Hytale Foley Studio" came out, there were only 3 Wuhan coronavirus cases in the Philippines, and the planet wasn't on lockdown/quarantine yet, sound designer Kieran Fitzpatrick was shown making bat sounds by squeezing an inflated balloon.
The only gripe I have against these bats is that they sound weird to me, considering that I'm used to Minecraft bat sounds and find them more "natural". (I guess I just haven't heard a lower-frequency version of real life bat sounds.)
But, guess what? Early March comes around and now we're dealing with a pandemic. As of writing this, nearly half a million have been infected and more than 20,000 are dead.
All because some idiots ate bat soup and some other idiots spread the disease.
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| Screenshot from Johns Hopkins University Taken on March 26 |
But if it doesn't happen, at least I still get to make one up, right? Prepare for cringey Dungeon Master narration.
In an alternate version of Orbis, the Outlanders are starving. Edible crops are scarce due to the raging blizzards of zone 3, and most traditional sources of meat have been driven to near extinction. Monsters mutated by strange, uncontrollable dark magics roam the snow-drowned landscape, ruthlessly slaughtering every last animal and sentient being.
Unable to adapt to the harshness of the surface, the Outlanders have fled underground to seek warmth and shelter. Hunger remained a significant problem, however--what are they gonna do, eat moss and rocks? Until a particularly brain-dead Outlander got an "idea" from hearing a distant squeak echoing throughout the vast darkness...
That's it! Bats, they thought. I mean, surely, they're safe to eat, right? They have wings like chickens do, they squeak kinda like rabbits... Famine crisis averted! Right?
Sort of. The Outlanders, now an underground-dwelling faction, have lived decently for years with the relative "safety" provided by the abundance of bats in their home caves. They've also learned to soften the bat meat by drenching it in water, thus creating the weapon of mass destruction known as bat soup.
However, another idiotic Outlander, bored of the underground life, broke away from the Outlander faction and became an adventurer. Not to worry though--he's addicted to bat soup, so his backpack made of bat hide is overstocked with bat meat and water!
After 5 days of traveling, this adventurer's first stop is zone 1. A balanced climate for a change, right? This Outlander decided to take a rest in a dense forest. Of course, he had bat soup for lunch before taking a nap with his backpack as his pillow. The zone 1 grass was perfectly soft for his back.
He awakened at sunset with an uneasy feeling. His throat felt dry and itchy. He touched his neck, and it was much hotter than usual. He started coughing more often.
A party of tree people known as the Kweebecs curiously ran towards the Outlander adventurer and were concerned. They decided to take him to their village.
The Kweebecs aided the Outlander as best they can, but they have no clue how the Outlander got sick. They have a theory though: The Outlander might have touched a poisonous plant.
Terrified of this news, the Outlander quickly crafted "slippers" out of wood then fled the Kweebec village and then zone 1, thinking the vibrant green grass was poisonous.
A week later, the Kweebecs started feeling the same unease as the Outlander. Coughing, itchy throat, fever, you know what I'm talking about. In a panic, the Kweebecs fled their own village as well, thinking this new disease might have taken over.
DISCLAIMER: I'm not sure yet if other species in real life can spread the Wuhan coronavirus.
The Trorks used the disarray and social isolation of the Kweebec faction as an opportunity to destroy the Kweebecs. Gang skirmishes have become more common across zone 1, with the Kweebecs losing almost every time thanks as well to the disease making it difficult for them to fight back.
As the Trorks celebrated hideously for every victory, with the fallen Kweebecs at the center, the virus, now desperate for another host, spread to the Trorks. The next week, celebration immediately descended into doom. Now it's the Trorks' turn to not be able to fight back.
Meanwhile, the Outlander adventurer also infected the Ferans, but I'm too tired to narrate because I'm really freaking angry.
Let's just say every faction ever eventually got infected.
This is where the player characters come in. A deadly virus has been unleashed upon the entirety of Orbis. No one other than the underground Outlanders knows where this virus truly came from, not even the players. Entire factions have either gone in hiding to hopefully evade the virus or are rapidly exterminating each other or their rivals, thinking they might either be infected or the cause of the outbreak. It's the player characters' jobs to decide what to do in the midst of the outbreak.
Good Playthrough Goals
- Investigate the true root cause of the outbreak.
- Learn who this Outlander adventurer is and his motives. If he is alive, kill, capture, or even cure him.
- Develop a vaccine and/or cure for the virus.
- Cure and/or immunize the infected.
- Kill, capture, or cure those who willingly spread the virus.
Evil Playthrough Goals
- Weaponize the virus, allowing it to spread rapidly over a massive area.
- Alter the virus so it can be more powerful or take on additional properties. Maybe even use it to turn things into zombies.
- Threaten to spread the virus or not stop the outbreak unless others do the players' bidding.
- Become one with the virus. Become the virus.
- Falsely encourage others to eat bat soup as the "cure" for the virus.
- Murder-hobo everyone. Because why not?
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