Background


Atmospheric tower - these things were used to terraform the world. They're the most prominent landmarks in Gilead, being tall enough to poke the clouds, and are an abundant source of scrap metal, but some of them may still be populated by Slaves, who'll react hostilely to anyone damaging the towers in any way. Even worse though are the towers that have been overtaken by Bandits, who'd rather cut or blast you into scrap as a way of saying hello. The best towers to keep a look out for are the ones inhabited by peaceful folk. Such places are known as 'Havens'.

Gileadean - blanket term for the denizens of Gilead.

Inheritor - those who have 'inherited the souls of their makers'. They are essentially former Slave robots who are now sentient and intelligent. You could say that they're the humans of Gilead, but they're not going to know what a human is. The worst thing an Inheritor can do to another, asides from rendering them down into scrap metal, is reprogramming them. One could make another Inheritor a Slave again; essentially killing their soul whilst the body lived on. Reprogramming Slaves on the other hand is generally seen as fair game, but opinions may differ on that.

Slave - those who are still bound by their programming to maintain their tower. For the most part, they'll completely ignore other robots, but if you do anything that they perceive as a threat to their tower, they will get vicious. Some Slaves can become Inheritors, but it's always an individual process, whether they're prodded along by other Inheritors or not. What comes after, well, that depends. Slaves can be reprogrammed to fulfil other tasks/purposes or change what they consider to be threats, but their chances of ever inheriting the souls of their makers is drastically lessened, depending on what's been modified. Some have tried to reprogram Slaves to make them into Inheritors, to force them into sentience or at least speed it up, but there has not been any known successes. Then again, Gilead is a big world.

Bandit - the ones that went bad. When these folks look at you, they don't see a fellow Inheritor. They see scrap metal. Beware of the Bandits.